


From Broken To Repaired

by MusingOwl



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood and Violence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Murder, New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Hatred, Sexual Humor, Spoilers, Starvation, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-04-16 19:04:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 40,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14171496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusingOwl/pseuds/MusingOwl
Summary: Yumeno Himiko thought everything was such a pain. Everything was just so annoying and bothersome. Especially people. Everything and everyone was such a nightmare to deal with. Including herself. Even she recognized that. However, when her world starts to shatter and the people she's come to know starts to crack under pressure and depression, she's forced to act to try keeping them all together.She needs to. She has to. No matter the cost. Even if it means kicking herself out of the shell she had grown so accustomed to. Even if it means facing the harsh truths she had been hiding away from the majority of her life.Even if it means partnering up with another nightmare.





	1. A Boring Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> If you've clicked on this, I want to be clear this story will be pretty dark. One of the reasons why I'm very apprehensive about writing this is because of the future content within the story itself.
> 
> It's difficult to write things with some tact but also portray how real people would act in situations they're thrown into. Humanity can, realistically, be very callous in times of tragedy. I don't trust myself as a writer to be able to properly balance between that. Taking care of your mental health is important to me, and it should be important to you.
> 
> The mind is very powerful. Please take care of yourselves. Don't risk your mental well-being for my amateurish and lousy story.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!

Imagine if humanity had the ability of foresight.

With it, it would be very easy for one to avoid the horrible negative outcomes that always follow life. Foresight would be an incredible ability to have. In the right hands, it would benefit the entire world. Unfortunately, humanity is limited in what they can or can’t do. They can only predict and act while hoping for the best.

Because humanity is limited, every time there is a bad outcome in one’s life, they will naturally look back and regret. They will look back on that outcome wishing desperately that things could have been different. They will look back on their mistakes and actions despite knowing how futile it is. They can’t change the past. No one can.

This doesn’t make it wrong, though. Regret can be one’s greatest tool, but also one’s greatest weapon. It’s normal to regret. It’s a very human thing to do.

The students at Saishuu Academy were just as susceptible to this human characteristic. They all had made mistakes in the past. They all had moments that they regret in the future. The things they regret all varied from person to person. Not every student felt broken or regret over the same thing. But nevertheless, they all felt pain. They could feel united in that aspect, at the very least. Despite one’s best facades, people are always hurting deep down inside. Even still, people will typically cling to life.

But at this point, who knows how long that feeling would last?

Monokuma had made everything quite clear. He wanted them to kill each other to try to escape. It was kill or be killed. Despite how nonsensical the situation was, he was serious. That shook everyone down to their very core.

The idea of being forced to kill one another or possibly dying yourself was terrifying. It instantly filled the student’s hearts and minds with dread. How could this be possible? How did this happen? Why is this happening? Those types of questioned clouded the minds of the students as the hours passed them by. The lingering fear hung heavy upon their entire bodies.

At first, they all tried to stay rational and calm. All were good at pretending like they were doing okay, despite the fear hanging over them. Despite their strong fronts though, they were all internally weak.

When they looked up at the cage above them, they were reminded about how powerless they actually were. Not only were they weighed down by their dread and fear, but they were told that they were trapped. They were like chained birds in a bird cage.

Their attempts to escape the school using the underground sewage system were all for naught. They gained nothing out of the whole ordeal other than more negative thoughts and emotions. The students were only reminded of the futility of it all. Their feelings of anxiousness and dread began to rise as they were forced to confront the reality of their situation. They were truly trapped with no methods of escape.

If that wasn’t enough, Monokuma added another motive to make them truly desperate. He added a time limit. If one of them didn’t start the killing before his time limit expired, everybody forced to participate in the killing game would die by his hand.

Murder was slowly starting to become easier to consider.

Despite this, Akamatsu and Momota wouldn’t let everybody give up. They shined like beacons of hope, despite being just as afraid as the rest of them. They were too determined and stubborn for their own good. They refused to listen to Monokuma and continued to face him with unyielding glares. They would do anything if it meant defeating him. If Monokuma was going to take things to the extreme, they would respond back with their own extremity.

On the final day, everybody awoke to see the dorm lobby’s doors adorned with padlocks and chains. Akamatsu and Momota stood in front of the doors with tired, yet resolute smiles on their faces.

Everyone looked at their handiwork, stunned. Most had expressions of shock and surprise on their faces. When Saihara came out and saw Akamatsu standing there, he had looked especially surprised. Nobody knew what to think. Nobody knew how to react. Only questions were raised.

Next to the pair lay power tools. Enclosed hooks had been screwed into the frame of the doors. There were fifteen of them in total. Five each on the top and the sides. The doors didn’t have any handles to loop through, so the chains were looped through the hooks and tangled together. For extra security, the chains were linked together with several locks, making it even harder to take down.

It seemed like they had put in quite a lot of effort trying to set this up. They looked very tired and half asleep just standing in front of them. Had they stayed up? They must have. There was no other time that they could have put this up. They were just lucky that their dorm rooms were soundproof. They probably would have been stopped if anybody had heard them.

As everyone started to gather within the lobby, Momota tried to explain their actions. He proudly proclaimed that he and Akamatsu had decided that they would all take part in a final stand against Monokuma. They were all going to stay in the dormitories and guarantee that a murder wouldn’t occur. This was all an act to defy him.

At first, they received heavy backlash. None of the other students had agreed to this. They were being forced to make a choice they didn’t have a say in. The students were bursting with complaints and objections. Despite how tired they looked, Akamatsu and Momota seemed like they expected this response. They were ready for it.

* * *

“Akamatsu-san!” Chabashira protested, “Tenko thought you were smarter than this! How can you fall for this degenerate’s idiotic way of thinking??”

“There are more productive ways to go about defying Monokuma,” Hoshi stated sternly. He had an unusual expression of frustration plastered on his face. “If we do this, we’d all just die. I doubt that’s what you’d all want, right?”

“I don’t want us to die at the hands of each other as much as you guys do,” Amami said, clearly irresolute. “Even so, just giving up and doing nothing is pretty...”

“It’d be pretty useless! Right? Right?” Angie cheerfully swayed from side to side.

The chatter quickly became chaotic. Nobody was really talking to each other anymore. They stopped giving coherent reasoning and arguments. They were all just blurting out whatever came to mind. Logic was getting thrown out the window and replaced by strong emotional fear. Nobody could tell what anyone was saying anymore.

“This type of plan... isn’t as bad as you guys think,” a voice spoke before the crowd. Everyone started to simmer down as they turned to face the individual. Surprise adorned their faces. It was Saihara.

At first, nobody knew what to say. Then like a broken dam, the room started bursting with questions for him. Saihara’s eyes went wide at the directed burst in volume, but he quickly collected himself. He took a deep breath in and out, almost like he was readying himself for what he was about to say.

He then spoke in the boldest voice he could muster, “Everyone isn’t wrong to be worried or concerned. The plan by itself sounds nonsensical and suicidal, yes? Even still, I think there is some logic to it.”

“Logic?” Shinguuji wrapped his hands around his body, “What about this could be considered logical?”

“Well,” Saihara started, the gears in his brain turning, “Momota-kun was saying how this is all an act to defy Monokuma. When I heard him say that, a question came to mind. A question we haven’t really talked about.”

“And what kind of question would that be?” Hoshi asked.

“If... If we were to revolt and defy Monokuma, what would be the best way to do it?” Saihara hesitantly wondered aloud.

“The answer to that seems obvious, though,” Kiibo remarked. “It would simply be not to kill each other. That kind of defiance only but guarantees our deaths, though.”

“That would depend on Monokuma’s goal, right?” Akamatsu asked.

“His goal? Is Monokuma’s goal not obvious?” Angie asked with a confused look.

“What are you trying to get at?” Harukawa asked.

“I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a while, but...” Akamatsu paused in thought. “Monokuma wants us to start killing each other, right? He’s made that very clear. But thinking about it, if he wanted us to just start killing each other, what’s stopping him from killing us off one by one until we do so? Why doesn’t he just make us kill each other off out of pure survival?”

Saihara put a hand to his mouth, “If he wanted us to simply kill each other off, he would have many easier and far more efficient ways of motivating us to do so. But he hasn’t done that. My next question would be... ‘why’?”

“Well,” Shinguuji started, “it appears to me that Monokuma wants us to partake in these so-called class trials that are heavily emphasized upon in the rules. If everyone were to die so abruptly all at once, a class trial would be impossible to hold.”

“Wait that doesn’t make sense!” Chabashira objected, “Monokuma threatened to kill us _all_ if we didn’t start the killing game! Why would he threaten us in that way if he doesn’t want a massacre and wants us to participate in class trials? Isn’t that dangerous for him??”

“Maybe Monokuma doesn’t care about how the death toll starts to rack up?” Ouma grinned, “He just finds the killing game to be the much more fun and exciting route!”

“You’re saying... he just prefers it?” Shirogane asked.

“I mean... he’s pretty evil... and pretty crazy...” Yumeno said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case...”

“That is a possibility, but we don’t know that for sure, right?” Saihara said. “It’s why I think we need to discuss about Monokuma’s goal. His words and his actions are very questionable. I think if we just talk about it, we might be able to come up with something.”

“Come up with something? Like what?” Kiibo asked.

“We know his basic goal, but it feels like there’s something he’s also aiming for beyond that, right?” Saihara answered. “If we can figure out what his intentions are, we can use that against him and come up with the best and optimal way of defying him.”

The room went quiet. They all looked at each other, trying to process the information. Unease, confusion, and the occasional blank stare were the only expressions to be seen on any of their faces.

“I don’t think we have enough information yet to make a solid conclusion on what his goals might actually be,” Amami said, “But I don’t think we should stop this discussion. I think we should just focus on a more specific point. ”

“What should we be talking about instead, then?” Akamatsu asked.

“It’s just a suggestion, but I think we should be having a serious discussion on Monokuma’s limitations,” Amami slowly and thoughtfully spoke.

“His limitations? That’s...” Akamatsu mumbled aloud to herself, brow furrowed. A second later, her eyes lit up. Before she could speak though, Saihara spoke.

“I think that’s a good idea,” he said. “If we can discover what his limitations are, we can use that to our advantage.”

“It might also help us start to understand his goals and why he’s acting in such a convoluted way!” Akamatsu smiled, “So Amami-kun, since you brought it up, do you have any ideas?”

“I was thinking about this when we started to question Monokuma’s goals,” Amami folded his arms and gave a serious look, “but I’m starting to question how serious of a threat Monokuma’s motive actually is.”

“How threatening it is?” Momota asked. “What do you mean?”

“Thinking about it now,” Amami put a hand to his chin, “the rules themselves may actually stop Monokuma from fulfilling his promise if a murder doesn’t occur.”

Saihara’s eyes flickered. Brow furrowed, he took out his Monopad. He swiped through the rules one by one, deep in thought.

As he did this, Akamatsu spoke, “Really? Which rule are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about rule number nine, “Amami took out his own Monopad along with a couple other students. He swiped to rule nine to read it aloud, “’Monokuma will never directly participate in a murder.’ The rule itself doesn’t seem especially odd, but... Well, Saihara? What do you think?”

Saihara’s finger lingered over the touch pad. He was clearly hesitating to speak.

Akamatsu spoke, also hesitant, “The rules themselves do state that. But... wouldn’t that mean...”

Saihara swallowed. “If we were to be killed for not following through on the motive, it wouldn’t be through him.” He looked at Amami, “That’s what it means, right?”

“Isn’t that rule more about him being forbidden from helping us commit a murder that we ourselves instigate?” Hoshi asked.

“Well, I think that is how Monokuma intended that rule to be read in the first place,” Amami explained, “but I think it can go further than just that. If he did kill us, that would be considered ‘directly participating in a murder,’ wouldn’t you say? He’d technically be a murder.”

“Can a stuffed bear _really_ be charged for murder?” Harukawa asked.

“Monokuma is clearly a robot!” Kiibo yelled. “If I can be charged for committing murder, then so should he! It’d be inequitable if he didn’t!”

“With this in mind, I don’t think Monokuma can really do anything to us directly,” Rantaro thought aloud, “He may want to, but I don’t think he will. Especially with the way the rules are worded. He can really only push us forward in the direction he wants us to go.”

“Who cares about all of that though?” Angie beamed with a huge smile on her face.  “Can’t Monokuma just take it back? He is the Headmaster of this school, after all!” Even during a serious situation like this, she seemed to care less about the outcome of this whole event.

“It is unlikely that Monokuma will retract such a rule since it’s not stated that he has such a power in the rules itself,” Kiibo replied. “The rules only mention the power to add rules, not subtract.”

“Sure Monokuma can’t kill us,” Ouma raised his index finger to his lips, giving a sly smile towards his peers, “but the Monokubs don’t have that kind of restriction, do they?”

Saihara looked at him with a brow raised, “Ouma-kun, have you forgotten?” Ouma continued to look at him with the same cheeky smile as he continued, “Monokuma specifically stated that after the time limit was over, we’d get mauled by Monokumas. In fact, when the Monokubs did bring up the idea of using the Exisals instead, Monokuma himself was the one that refused that idea. He doesn’t want them to do the punishing, in this case.”

“Yes, yes!” Angie cheerily sung, affirming Saihara’s claim. “Angie remembers that very well. God does too, so you can trust Angie.”

“Gonta remembers that too!” Gonta loudly proclaimed.

“Nyeh... even I remember that...” Yumeno looked at him in disbelief, “How... could you even forget about something like that?”

“E-Eh? Really? I don’t remember that... at all... I was so sure, too...” Ouma’s sly look had disappeared. What was left was a frightened and teary-eyed face, “WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! YOU’RE ALL SO MEAN TO ME! I ONLY MADE A SIMPLE MISTAKE!! ONLY ONE!!!” Everyone rolled their eyes, having difficulty believing in the authenticity in such an over the top reaction. Well, everyone except Gonta.

“It’s okay, Ouma-kun. Gonta also makes lots of mistakes! Don’t feel bad!” Gonta was oblivious to the truth behind Ouma’s amplified set of emotions. His classmates couldn’t help but feel pitiful for him, falling for something so falsified.

“Thanks, Gonta! I feel all better now, thanks to you!” All remaining pity had dried up as quickly as Ouma’s tears did.

Toujou cleared her throat to call attention to herself, “Let us continue our discussion. The Exisals’ main usage is to uphold the rules that were told to us on our Monopads, correct?” she thoughtfully looked off to the side for a couple seconds before looking back at Saihara. “But if that’s the case...”

“Leave it to Tenko! Tenko understands what you’re saying!” Chabashira interjected. “Even if the Exisals were used, wouldn’t that be breaking the rules as well?”

“Breaking the rules?” Yumeno asked with a confused look.

Kiibo crossed his arms and put a hand to his chin, “Rules and motives shouldn’t be classified as the same thing. There isn’t a rule stating that we must act upon any of the motives given. So ignoring and leaving motives unused shouldn’t be something we can even get punished for,” Kiibo paused, “but... if that’s the case... what does this all mean?”

“This is all one big bluff, ain’t it?” Momota looked directly at Saihara, seething.

Saihara could only give a slight nod back, “Yes, I’m starting to think it is...”

Momota gave a low growl as he punched his fists together in frustration, “That lousy Monokuma... thinking he can make us panic and trick us all like that...”

“Wait, Momota-san,” Chabashira hurriedly interjected in a confused yet accusatory tone of voice. “About just now, why are you of all people talking about Monokuma bluffing like you, yourself, hadn’t even realized it?”

Shinguuji brought his hand up to his mouth in surprise, “If you never realized it was a bluff, what exactly was your reasoning when you decided to lock us up?”

“You’re right! That is weird! So what was it, huh? Huh?” leaning forward, Angie stared at Momota’s face, almost like she was studying it.

“Did you... even have a reason? ...On why you wanted to hold us hostage?” Yumeno’s mouth grimaced, her scornful face ever present, as she asked the question.

“Of course I had a reason! Who the hell do you think I am?” Momota raised his fist with a self-assured grin on his face. “Monokuma wants us to murder one another, so obviously by not doing that we won’t be doing what Monokuma wants and not falling into his trap!”

“S-So you didn’t think this through at all?” Yumeno looked shocked as she clenched her hands into fists.

Her classmates gave Momota similar looks as he continued to speak, “What are you talking about? Of course I did! This is an official decision made by Momota Kaito, luminary of the stars, so you know you can trust it!”

“Stop using your catchphrase to hide your stupidity!” Chabashira snapped back at Momota, equally as frustrated and as upset as everyone else. As soon as Chabashira had yelled, everyone started talking all at once. They were all desperate to get their thoughts out at this new revelation.

Akamatsu quickly stepped in, attempting to stop the ruckus, “Everyone, stop!!” she shouted loudly, her voice ringing throughout the dormitory. “I know we all have questions. But now that we know about this, we need to at least figure out what to do about it first!”

Everything went quiet once again. People were mulling the new information they had uncovered together in silence. Everyone’s gazes were on each other, unsure whether or not they should speak. That was, until one person broke the silence.

“I know how risky this may sound...” Saihara mumbled his words. Pausing to think, he swallowed and continued in a louder voice, “but if this is all one big bluff, our best strategy would be to just not listen to Monokuma’s motive. As we’ve discussed, Monokuma’s rules are clearly flawed and would actually prevent him with going through with the punishment he described to us. So please... let’s not do anything and just wait the motive out. Let’s take a risk and put our trust in our own reasoning.”

When Saihara finished speaking, there was immediate positive reception. Well, from one person in particular.

“Atta boy, Saihara! I didn’t realize you were so reliable!” Momota grinned, giving a pat or two on Saihara’s back. His mood seemed to greatly improve the moment he knew he had someone else behind him on all this. “So there we go! It’s been decided!”

“It has?” Harukawa asked candidly, stunned at Momota’s sudden declaration.

“H-hardly!” sputtered Chabashira at lightning speed. “You degenerate males, thinking you can do whatever you want and just get away with it.”

Akamatsu quickly looked away from her with a forced smile on her face.

“But...”Saihara quickly glanced at Akamatsu, trying to keep a straight face. “Akamatsu-san helped, didn’t she? It’s not just guys...”

Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t help but give a small smile after immediately seeing the flaw in Chabashira’s thinking.

“She had to have been tricked!” Chabashira insisted with unwavering eyes. “There’s no way a girl could have agreed to something so idiotic!”

Just looking at Akamatsu’s face, though, one could tell that wasn’t the case.

After far too much talking, the group came to a consensus. They would stay in the dormitories and wait things out.

Akamatsu seemed relieved and smiled at Saihara, who couldn’t help but smile back. Momota seemed to be getting even livelier as time passed. Despite the bickering, they all seemed satisfied in the end.

“Thinking about it though, whoever’s responsible for all of this must sure be an idiot.” Immediately, the conversation changed course as soon as Ouma spoke.

Ouma raised his hands behind his head. He shifted his weight to one leg, a thoughtful look on his face, “I mean, having such a glaring problem with their rules and their motive sure is weird, right? They sure must have been in a rush to have this exciting killing game start already, huh...” He gave a grin that looked borderline sinister, “Though, of course, I don’t blame them! Who wouldn’t want to hurry up and just start the show already?”

“You seem perfectly willing to go along with this plan,” Kiibo commented, turning towards the supreme leader with narrow eyes.

“Eh? And? Is there a problem with that?” Ouma turned toward Kiibo as well, putting his hands on his hips with a puzzled look on his face.

“You do realize that going along with this plan will potentially stop your 'exciting killing game' from happening, right? Aren't you concerned with things turning boring?” Kiibo looked confused.

“Really? I don’t think so.” Ouma looked pointedly at the group, “I mean, if it fails, a massive bloodshed would be way more interesting, right?”

“Th-that won’t happen!” Chabashira blurted. She looked unsure, but she continued to try to look resolute in their decision.

“We have the rules on our side, so something like that is very unlikely,” Harukawa spoke bluntly. She lowered her eyelids ever so slightly into that of a glare.

“It’s exactly like Harukawa says!” Momota gave a big thumbs up and looked pointedly at her. “We have nothing to worry about!! We’ll be fine!”

“I only said unlikely,” Harukawa shifted slightly away from him. “It’s not guaranteed if Monokuma will even follow his own rules. Or if he’ll just change the punishment to abide by them.”

“We don’t really know what can happen as a result of this, right?” Hoshi said steadily.

“Yes, we can only speculate how things will turn out,” Amami admitted.

“Hey... is this plan really okay?” Yumeno asked slowly. “I know we already agreed on it.... But... It’s starting to sound... dangerous...”

“We’ve been calling it a risk for a reason, right?” Angie clasped her hands together, “Only god knows what will happen.”

“I mean, do you have a better plan?” Saihara asked her.

“Nnaa... no... not really...” Yumeno tugged at her sleeves, “Coming up with a plan seems like just a pain... Even if I tried...I probably wouldn’t be able to come up with something better anyways...”

“Look, there’s no need to worry!” Momota burst, trying to reassure her along with the others, “This plan will all work out! I mean, you have the Super High School Level Astronaut’s word by your side! You can’t get any better than that!”

“Momota-chan, just how much debt have you racked up over the years?” Ouma beamed, looking at him with a joyful smile.

“Debt? What debt?” Momota looked at him confused.

“Oh, I’m sorry! You seem like such an impulsive gambler that I kind of just assumed!”  Ouma jested, earning him a stunned and frustrated look from Momota. Before he could even say anything, Ouma spoke, “Anyways, we didn’t really figure out Monokuma’s secret intentions, but hey, at least we came out of this with something, right? Glad to see this wasn’t a total waste of time!”

Ouma spread out his arms as he continued, “Aaanyways, you don't need to worry about little ol' me! I’ll play along with you guys! Taking, using, and making super dangerous and super risky plans are right up my alley! I definitely won’t stab you guys in the back when I get the chance, so there’s no need to worry!”

“That’s...” Shirogane started with a disapproving look on her face, “A pretty bad joke to make at a time like this...”

Harukawa gave a small huff, “Since we’re so sure about this, we should take other precautionary measures. It would be bad if one person betrayed the group and ruined the plan,” she glanced at Ouma who looked back at her indifferently with a smile on his face. Saihara and Akamatsu gave each other a look before switching their attention back to her. “If a murder happened before the time limit ends, it would make all of this pointless,” she emphasized.

“That’s exactly what I was going to say!” Momota gleamed, voice booming. “Harukawa, are you secretly a mind reader?”

She glared at him, which caused him to take a couple steps back and distance himself from her.

“If alibis are a concern, might I suggest we all stay in the lobby of the dormitory rather than our own separate dorm rooms?” Toujou suggested. “We could lock our rooms except one to use as a restroom. If we were to lock and guard our keys away from anyone’s usage, there’s no chance of someone getting into a room they shouldn’t be in. And with that, our alibis would be secure. We’d all be constantly monitoring each other.” It took a second for them to think about it, but once they did, everyone responded in agreement. She gave them a small smile back at their united response.

“Let’s use Kiiboy’s room!” Ouma blurted out, rapidly pointing towards Kiibo. “He’s a robot, so he obviously doesn’t care about who uses his restroom since he doesn’t use it himself anyways!” Kiibo initially looked surprised, but more so from the sudden volume rather than what he had said. It took him a second to process his words, but when he did his face twisted into that of offense and frustration.

“What a horrific assumption! Just because I’m a robot, that doesn’t mean I don’t use it nor does it mean I don’t care who uses it!” Ouma could only smile in amusement from his remarks.

“Still, that logic is sound,” Shinguuji spoke smoothly. “Let us do that.”

“Thank you Kiibo! Your sacrifice is much appreciated!” Angie chimed in.

“Yes, thank you Kiibo-kun!” Gonta happily smiled with gratitude.

“I haven’t consented to this, yet!” Kiibo yelled in consternation. “Yes I may not use it and yes I do not care about who uses it, but why are we just assuming I’d be okay with this? Is it because you all think I don’t have preferences because I’m a robot? That I don’t have feelings? That is blatant robophobia!”

“I don’t think any of us think that, Kiibo-kun...” Saihara said with an awkward smile on his face.

Akamatsu joined him with her own awkward smile. Ouma was slightly bent over, holding his stomach and cackling in amusement.

“In any case, I will get spare pillows and blankets from the warehouse,” Toujou announced, “I will assure that everyone will be at their most comfortable. If someone could come along with me, we can get started right away.” Everyone looked relieved. If there was one person who could properly be on top of things, it was Toujou.

“I can help!” Shirogane volunteered, “Pillows and blankets should be no problem! I’m already used to carrying around bags of merch, anyways!”

“I’ll come too!” Akamatsu chimed in, “It’ll be faster with three people, right?”

“Akamatsu-san...” Saihara gave her a small smile, “You just want to go to sleep, right?”

“Heh...” Akamatsu bit her lip. “That obvious, huh?”

“It was just a guess.” Saihara gave her a concerned look, “How long have you been up?”

“Well, Momota-kun woke me up at one... And we didn’t know how to set the whole chained door thing up... so...” Akamatsu gave a couple of awkward laughs. “A while.”

“Figures...” he softly laughed.

“Wait... so...” Yumeno put her hands to her face and audibly gasped. “Are we having a slumber party?!”

Everybody looked at her curiously. It was a bit surprising to see her look anything but bored and tired. Nobody was going to point that out and potentially ruin it, though.

“A slumber party? That sounds like fun!” Shirogane agreed with her, newly brightened up.

“I agree! That sounds like a great idea!” Akamatsu joined in.

“Yes! That sounds simply divine!” Angie cheered, throwing her hands up in the air. The mood of the area had flipped like a switch. Everyone seemed to be happy now, their bodies and mind totally distracted by the idea of a party. It seemed like the happiest they had ever been since Monokuma had told them their cruel motive.

Ouma gave a wide smile, “Wow, a slumber party with all of our classmates? How exciting! That’ll totally get us out of this funk!” He also seemed excited at the idea of a slumber party. “Still, aren’t we forgetting something?

“The snacks, right?” Yumeno suddenly pointed at him. He took a tiny step back as she continued, quite unusually giddy. “I’m surprised. So you are useful for something after all!”

Chabashira looked noticeably envious from Yumeno’s remark. Ouma noticed this, looking knowingly back at her with a teasing look on his face. With that, she started fuming.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Amami casually agreed. “Snacks are an essential part of any party,” He let out a small and short laugh at his comment.

“I’m not talking about the snacks,” Ouma’s eyes gazed over all of his classmates, who all gave him blank stares back. A second or two passed before he opened his mouth again with a slightly annoyed expression, “Seriously? Have none of you realized it? I didn’t realize all of you were this slow!” Ouma denounced with an unusual amount of astonishment in his voice. The room went silent with thought. Nobody could think of anything.

“Ouma-kun, what is it that we’ve forgotten?” Saihara asked him.

“Seriously? Even you don’t know? How disappointing...” Ouma shrugged and sighed, “Fine, then I’ll just do it myself.” He walked towards the door wrapped in chains.

With a confused look, Akamatsu shifted slightly to stand in front of him. “Where are you going? If you need to get something, wait until we unlock the door first.” Her statements were ignored as Ouma walked around her.

Silently he placed his hand in between the chains onto the plexiglass door and pushed.

The door was open. Within seconds, Ouma quickly stepped his legs through the chains, along with his entire body, and was out. Everyone was stunned silent. He turned around and looked back at his classmates behind the chains.

“I’m gonna get Iruma-chan,” Ouma stated plainly. His face twisted into that of concern and disappointment. “Poor Iruma-chan... all alone and isolated... She’s going to be pissed you guys all forgot to give her invite. I’ll give her personal invitation to our little slumber party myself. ...Nishishi! Even though she doesn’t deserve it. Later!” With a smile on his face, he let go of the door. The door hit the chains and swung back and forth until it closed back in its usual closed position.

The room was silent. Nobody really knew what to say. Momota looked stunned, his eyes rapidly blinking. Akamatsu’s cheeks were tinged pink and slowly turning redder. Saihara’s teeth were clenched tightly. He slowly scratched his cheek, looking at the door. Nervously, he opened his mouth.

“I’ll... do something about that."

* * *

The morning was simple and ordinary. Well, as simple and ordinary as you could get. Despite the unusual set of circumstances and the lingering doubts still plaguing the student’s minds, they felt hopeful.

Eventually time started to run short. And with that, Monokuma started playing obnoxious and unnerving music. They all started to turn fearful. Their hearts started to beat faster and faster, their chests rising and falling with rapid breaths.

Even still, they shut their ears and tried to pretend like everything was fine and that nothing was wrong. There isn’t anything wrong. Why would there be? Everything is fine. Everything will work out.

It was most certainly forced, but it just was something they had to do. Their own mental well-being depended on it. If they started to crumble and shatter, who knows what would happen? That is when the unpredictable happens. And if it’s one thing they couldn’t afford, it was that.

Luckily, things turned out the way they hoped it would.

Their gamble was a success. After time ran out, Monokuma made his way into the dormitory. The Monokubs quickly made their way inside as well, standing behind him with angry and confused looks on their faces. At first, everyone stiffened in fear at the sight of him. The moment he started yelling, a couple of them fell to the floor, their feet unable to support them. But as he continued to yell at them more and more, they came upon a realization.

Monokuma really wasn’t going to do anything to them.

And thus, they started their steadfast defiance.

Despite Monokuma’s failure with his first motive, he didn’t give up. He continued to try to give motives, but to no avail.

When the Monokubs handed them Monokubz pads filled with the most important people in their lives, most of them simply broke and threw them out without even watching. Some watched theirs, but even after that, nobody could believe anything that was said.

Everything just seemed too ridiculous to believe. Monokuma had tried to get them to fall for his motives before. What good reason would they have to believe that these videos could actually be real, seeing as the last one was a huge bluff?

Monokuma didn’t seem like that big of a threat anymore. Thus, the students decided to band together and start doing things their way. They still wanted to escape, so they all united together in a joint effort to make that happen. Monokuma had a rule in place that allowed them to explore the school at their own discretion, so that’s what they did. They continued to wander around, hoping to find something to help them figure out where they were and how they could all escape.

Despite Monokuma’s failings, he refused to give up. One day, during their morning breakfast, Monokuma took out an invention of his. He called it a Flashback Light. He explained to the students how using it would give them their memories back. To put it shortly, he said that they weren’t trying to kill and escape because they won’t believe in anything he says. But how can you not believe your own memories?

The students promptly destroyed twenty of them.

The students knew better than to listen to Monokuma. They all knew that whatever Monokuma would give them would be a trap and a waste of time. No matter how many Flashback Lights he shoved in their faces, it was ineffective.

The Monokubs stood back and watched in abject horror as they witnessed Monokuma get madder and madder by the passing day. By the time the twentieth Flashback Light was destroyed, you couldn’t even describe the rage shown on his face. Absolutely nothing was working.

Despite that, Monokuma wasn’t going to give up. If they were going to take things to the extreme, Monokuma would respond back with his own extremity.

He started forcing people to view personalized Flashback Lights.

One way or another, he would get them to view it. He’d take them by surprise and flash it immediately. Regardless if the students locked themselves away in their rooms, Monokuma would find a way in and make sure they saw it. It was a slow process. All that time spent wasn’t for naught, though.

Students started to stray away from the group. Despite their initial insistence on sticking together and working as one, they still started to walk away. Whatever was remembered stirred great animosity and hatred towards one other. Each Flashback Light contained troublesome news and information that shook them to their very core.

Once Monokuma discovered this, he realized that threatening students like this was a viable strategy. It would be the best way to coerce the students to do whatever he wanted them to.

With that, he started to threaten select students. He told them if there wasn’t a murder within twenty-four hours, he would reveal to the class and the world at large a secret or something private about themselves.

At first it started out small. The private things Monokuma would disclose wasn’t anything too extreme. They were small things, like guilty pleasures. But after a while, he started threatening people with bigger concerns.

He threatened Amami, saying how he would reveal him as a failure of a brother for losing his twelve sisters. He threatened Harukawa, saying how he would reveal how she was actually the Super High School Level Assassin. He threatened Shinguuji, saying how he would reveal his incestuous love for his sister, which he knew wouldn’t be taken well.

Of course, nobody gave in to his demands and nobody started the killings. So he kept revealing these things one by one, day by day. Along with the worrisome Flashback Lights, the group started to break down. The united force they had worked so hard to uphold and maintain was shattering, fast.

It was an act of desperation on Monokuma’s end. He was just lucky it was starting to work. It had felt like Monokuma had placed a ticking time bomb in each and every one of them.

They knew they had to do something to stop this.

* * *

“You’ve been getting pretty desperate, Monokuma!” Akamatsu yelled. “However, you should know it’s doing nothing to us! You should just see how pointless this is and quit it already!” Her voice echoed off the walls of the gymnasium. She was quite loud, but nobody seemed to mind. Her classmates could understand her frustration.

Monokuma, who was on the stage’s podium, seemed amused, “Puhuhu... you sound a little desperate yourself,” he commented. “You don’t need to lie to me, y’know? I mean, you’re here because you want me to stop, right? I can tell by just looking at you!”

“Are you worried that things will get worse if this continues?” Monofunny wondered aloud.

“If that’s the case, Papakuma should keep it the hell up!” Monokid exclaimed, lifting his guitar above his head.

The Monokubs were also with Monokuma. They were standing on the stage, right bellow him. Monodam and Monosuke were on his left and Monotaro, Monofunny, and Monokid were on his right.

“Y-you’re wrong! That’s not...” Akamatsu stuttered, unsure what to say.

“It’s pointless and I’ll tell you why,” Saihara boldly spoke. Everyone turned towards him with eager eyes.

Saihara had taken off his hat and started speaking up more a week prior. And ever since then, he started being pushed into becoming their main strategist. He didn’t really want that type of stressful spotlight position. Despite that, he begrudgingly accepted the role.

“Trying to one-up me, huh?” Monokuma gave a hearty laugh, “Well, go ahead!! Even though we always know who wins in the end, you’re free to try! So tell me Saihara-kun. Why exactly is it pointless?”

Saihara had a fixed stare on him, “Despite the difficulties we’ve faced, we’ve never failed. We’ve managed to cover our ground and stand proudly before you today. We’ve been careful and thorough,” he pointed towards him. “However, in your desperation, you’ve made several fatal mistakes.”

“Mistakes?” Monokuma tilted his head as his eyes stared back at him. “Whatever could you mean?” He looked so sickeningly innocent. Just from the facial expression alone, it was hard to tell if he was oblivious to the mistakes Saihara had claimed he had made or not.

Saihara’s stare had turned into that of a glare, “Do you really have no idea?”

“Nope! I’m not sure if you knew, but I’m really quite old!” Monokuma gave him a big smile, “Us old folk tend to forget about a lot of useless things.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter,” he said, pushing Monokuma’s words to the side, “I’ll reveal the truth. The truth you yourself have not recognized.”

“Just get to the point already!” Monokuma snapped, tapping his foot expectantly.

“Harukawa-san,” Saihara turned towards her. Her eyes widened in surprise, “Would you tell us the contents of the Flashback Light you saw today?”

Harukawa gave a glance at the rest of the class before looking back at him, “Why?” she asked, “Is it really all that important?”

“It is,” Saihara affirmed. “I know you find it a bit... private. But it’s important. Please.”

Harukawa held her breath. She looked back at her classmates again, who looked at her curiously. She sighed in resignation.

“It’s like I told you,” she spoke with strength in her voice before it became softer and less forced. “When I was in middle school, I ended up meeting Momota. He was in a different class than me, but we still met up every now and then. ...We got along, to say the least. We would talk a lot. We brazenly told a lot of our secrets to each other, including my status as an assassin.”

You could tell that the story Harukawa was re-telling was very important and dear to her. Her solemn face gave that away very easily. Momota looked surprised and confused, but he shut his mouth. From his reaction, it didn’t look like Harukawa had told him about this.

Slowly, she continued, “One day, he... he told me about how he was getting beat up and harassed by this group of ten strangers that seemed to know him. They made fun of his dream to go to space, telling him it was an impossible and a ridiculous notion for someone as stupid as him... He felt like he couldn't really tell anyone about it because it would make him less of a man if he did. He still... told me, though. He thought I wouldn’t judge him for it. Momota isn’t really the type to let others push him around or cry, but he wouldn't be able to hold back whenever we would talk privately about it. It really... hurt me, to see him that way. After one especially harsh breakdown, I told him that if he asked, I’d be willing to get rid of them if he needed me to. Permanently,” she stressed the word heavily, everyone instantly understanding what she was implying.

“I... won’t go into my reasoning as to why I made such a reckless statement. I’m not even sure if my statement was made on impulse or whether I was dead serious. Even so... it seems Momota from then is still just the same as he is now. He told me I shouldn’t bloody my hands over something like this. Can you believe it? He said this to me like my hands weren’t blood soaked already,” Harukawa paused and sighed. “Either way, I ended up transferring to a different school from him during the year because of my job. I don’t know how I forgot about all that... He’s... still just as big of an idiot as he was back then....”

“Idiot!?” Momota exclaimed. He quickly shook his head, “Never mind that! Harumaki! That was you?! I remember a person like that... but... How is that possible?!” He looked back and forth between Saihara and Harukawa. His fingers were raking through his hair. His emotions were running rampant, “There ain’t no way that could’ve been you! There’s absolutely no way a chick could’ve said all that!”

Harukawa rolled her eyes, “Momota. I have said almost everything you said I shouldn’t be saying. Multiple times.”

Momota gave a dismissive wave with his hand, “That’s not what I mean! I’m being serious! It ain’t possible! I mean, I graduated from an all-boys middle school!”

Harukawa froze. Her mind had completely stopped. This was short-lived, however. The moment the gears in her brain started spinning again, she turned her whole body to face him head-on. Jaw clenched, she uttered, “Are you serious?”

“C’mon, you and I both know I wouldn’t joke about something like that!”

“M-maybe Momota-kun was in a different middle school before the all-boys one?” Shirogane timidly suggested.

“No, I never was!” Momota insisted.

“But,” Harukawa furrowed her brow, “I _know_ you attended the school I went to.”

Momota closed his eyes and scratched the back of his head, “Maybe it was an imposter?? As much as I’d love for it to be true, it can’t be! Or...” His stomach dropped. His eyes widened and flickered, “Wait... Harumaki... Are you actually...?”

Her face immediately became dark, “Do you want to die?”

Momota closed his mouth firmly shut.

Everyone could only stare incredulously. They stared at the two, who were just silently looking at each other in confusion.

“It’s weird, right?” Saihara said. Everyone gave him signs of agreement. What just happened? Despite everyone looking confused, he continued, “If it’s possible, can we all start talking about what exactly the contents of our Flashback Lights were? I know we’ve been sort of avoiding talking about it, but...”

Everybody shifted slightly away. Some started to fiddle with their clothes or hair nervously. Nobody really wanted to come out and say anything.

“If Saihara-san thinks it may be useful, I’d be happy to oblige.” A voice. Everyone quickly turned their heads to see who it was that spoke up. It was Toujou.

“Toujou-san,” Akamatsu paused, “are you sure?”

She looked at her reassuringly, “You do not need to worry. I am simply putting my trust in Saihara-san. I will do what needs to be done, for everyone’s sake.”

“Toujou-san,” Saihara’s eyes softened as he gave her a smile, “thank you.”

“There is no need for gratitude” she smiled back at him. And with that, she told her tale. “A week ago, I recalled a memory of my late master. As a maid, I am the one to be of service to my client. However, with him, it sometimes felt like the exact opposite. He taught me much. He exposed me to a great number of things I would have never have come to realize on my own. He taught me much about the world and of life in general. I am eternally grateful to have worked with him as long as I did.”

“My late master was a kind man. He treated me like one of his own daughters, though I’m not sure if he treated me that way to cope with his sorrow.” Her classmates looked momentarily confused, but she realized this quickly and explained, “You see, his daughters had gone missing several years ago. Because of this, he did whatever he could to find them. He was a very determined man. Recently, he had gotten information that there may be a chance their whereabouts were linked to the mafia. The mafia heads, to be more specific. He wanted nothing more but to investigate the mafia in an attempt to find where his daughters were.”

Her face fell, “It was bad timing I suppose, but he ended up being a victim during the infamous underground mafia massacre that Hoshi-san was responsible for. That day, I was to pick him up and walk him home when he was finished. I waited at the building’s front entrance for hours. However, he never came out. Thus, I went into the building and into the underground to look for him, witnessing the gruesome aftermath of Hoshi-san’s attack. I found his body among the many others. To spare you all the details, his skull had been crushed. It was... a horrid sight, to say the least. I was filled with nothing but hatred towards whoever had caused this.”

Toujou looked at the floor, tugging tightly at her wrist, “When the police arrived, I was brought in for questioning. The questioning period went on for, what seemed like, forever. I was still in shock and I couldn’t think straight. But suddenly, I had this... realization,” she bit her lip. “I have been tasked to be the body guard for officials and other important people before. I was at the scene of the crime for hours. If I had just walked in the moment I had arrived, maybe I could have stopped it. Maybe I could have apprehended Hoshi-san before too much damage had been done. Maybe... I could have saved my master.”

Toujou turned her head upwards, batting her eyes several times, “I went... into a horrible state of self loathing after that.”

Hoshi lowered his head. He pulled down his beanie, trying not to look at her, “I... didn’t realize.” He wasn’t sure what to say.

Toujou looked down at him. She remained tight lipped as he continued to speak. “I’m sorry for what I did to your master. You don’t need to forgive me for that, though.”

“If I may,” Toujou’s swallowed, “why exactly did you kill them?”

“Revenge,” he stated, “I wasn’t in my right mind, to say the least. It’s why I made such a suicidal move on them in the first place.”

She lowered her head slightly, “I see. I understand. The news said something to that effect when the story broke... But... Out of curiosity... Did you happen to be...” She looked away from him and stopped.

He could guess what she wanted to know.

Her emotions were starting to get the better of her. So much so, that she was starting to ask invasive questions. Questions she probably would never ask under normal circumstances.

He took his hand off his hat and looked up at her, “Probably, yeah,” he stated plainly. “I wasn’t really thinking of my own survival. It’s why I decided to ambush them during their next meeting.”

Toujou blinked, “Meeting?”

Hoshi turned towards her, “What? Do you not know about it?”

She shook her head. “No, I do. The mafia had meetings every month or so to discuss the next players they would invite and who they would bid for. My master had talked to me at length about it,” she paused and looked to the floor. “But... during a meeting, you say? Do they have meetings on the days of their competitions?”

“No, they don’t,” Hoshi casually put his hand in his pocket, “Why do you ask?”

She looked back up at him, “Well, the day that my master died happened to be on the day of one of their underground competitions.”

“Really? That’s odd,” he said, “The mafia always had meetings on the first Friday of the month. I ambushed them during their meeting because I wanted to get rid of all them. Attending the meetings was mandatory for all members. That’s why I chose that day to begin with.”

“That is... most peculiar,” Toujou commented. “My master’s status during that time was only that of a spectator. He wouldn’t have been able to even attend such a meeting. He was planning on visiting and getting to know the heads through multiple visitations to gain their trust and earn the ability to attend those private meetings.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Hoshi stared. “I’m telling you the truth.”

Hoshi and Toujou stared at each other for a couple seconds before breaking eye contact. They were entrenched in their own thoughts, trying to think of a reason why they could be remembering incidents so differently from one another.

And just like before, the gym went quiet. But that silence didn’t last for long.

“Huh? There’s another mistake?” Angie interrupted with a smile on her face. “How mysterious! What do you think about that, Mr. False Prophet?” The way Angie spit out her last sentence made it clear that she wasn’t exactly happy with whoever she was talking to.

“Mr. False Prophet?” Shirogane looked curiously at her. “Who are you talking to?”

Angie smiled wider, “Oh, his name does not need to be spoken of.” She was staring directly at someone as she spoke. It was Shinguuji.

He gave her a raised brow, “Really?” He pointed towards himself. “I did such a thing?”

“You can’t play innocent in front of god! He’s an almighty deity, you know? ”Angie sung. Her face became dark. “Angie knew it was weird when the locals started to question his will. You should pray for forgiveness. It would do you well!”

“That is a ridiculous implication,” Shinguuji muttered. He raised his voice, “I did no such thing.”

“Do not try to deny it.” Angie looked like she would attack him if she could get away with it. “Last summer, Angie saw you talking to the locals. A month or two later, Angie’s whole island had turned away from him! Foreigners rarely visit our island, so you can be the only cause! You most definitely tricked them and turned them all into apostates.”

“... Summer?” Shinguuji looked perplexed. “That can’t be possible. I may travel the world quite frequently for my research, and it’s true I visited your island at one point in time. But I visited during the winter, not the summer.”

That was quick.

“Eh? Are you sure?” Angie put a finger to her lip, “It was summer time when Angie saw you, though! Angie swears! Did you visit any other time?”

“No, I only visited once. I was planning on revisiting this year out of curiosity.” He looked a little peeved, “You should have talked to me earlier. Your antagonism towards me these past few weeks has not been very pleasant. We could have resolved this quite peacefully.”

“I don’t blame her one bit!” Chabashira yelled out, “Nobody should have to talk with someone as vile as you! Your degeneracy is far lower than that of a common male, and that’s saying something!”

“If you’re talking about me and my sister’s relationship, you should know that it something we will never agree upon,” Shinguuji said. He wrapped his arms around himself with a bittersweet look on his face, “I’ve already long accepted that this deep love of mine will never be truly understood!”

Yumeno pulled her hat lower down on her head, “You should see a therapist. I’m sure they’d understand...”

“Either way I really didn’t do anything of the sort,” Shinguuji ignored Yumeno’s comment entirely. “What I like to do is observe other cultures and the changes that develop as time goes on. I do not change it myself. I do apologize if I gave you the impression that I was trying to change your way of living.”

“Really? Angie looked unsure. “You swear to god?”

“Sincerely,” he stressed.

“Okay! All is forgiven!” Angie smiled.

“Nyeh... really? That fast, huh...?” Yumeno looked baffled at Angie’s instant forgiveness. It was hard to believe Angie would just forgive him so easily.

“Yup yup!” Angie beamed, “Give thanks! God also says he forgives you! He is so very, very kind.”

After the third contradictory statement, everyone started to talk. They made their way to the people whom they were avoiding. The gymnasium was filled with surprised looks, angry faces, and even some tears. It took a little while, but more contradictions started to pile up on top of each other. It was all so confusing. How could their memories all be so contradictory?

Saihara and Akamatsu looked up at Monokuma. He stood on the podium, silent and trembling with rage. To see Monokuma look so angry was worth the hassle. It was very satisfying.

Akamatsu smirked, “You’ve got something to say, Monokuma?”

His body stiffened at the sound of his name. He fidgeted where he stood, “Wh-what?  Something to say?? Of course I’ve got something to say! You guys all have horrible memories and you think I’m the one to blame? Maybe you guys should rethink who’s really at fault, here!”

“Father is right!” Monotaro spoke up, looking even more nervous than his father was.

Even still, he put up a strong front. He jumped off the stage and walked towards the students. It felt like he was trying to intimidate them by getting close to them. Seeing this, the rest of the Monokubs followed suit, jumping down after him.

“Yeah!” Monosuke agreed, “When Monotaro forgets things, it’s always his fault! It’s never Papa!”

“Don’t blame Daddy for your own faults!” Monofunny chastised in an equally defensive manner.

“No, that’s wrong!” Akamatsu shouted and pointed towards Monokuma, causing the room to go silent once more, “At this point, the answer is crystal clear! All these flashback light memories we’ve remembered are fake, aren’t they!?”

“Fake!?” Monokuma yelled, “Are you calling me a fraud!? How dare you accuse those memories of yours as fake! I did you all a favor in helping you remember your forgotten memories and this is the treatment I get!?”

“I don’t trust you or those memories!” Saihara curled his fingers into a tight fist. He looked up at Monokuma through his bangs. “I don’t think anyone in their right mind is going to after witnessing all of this!”

“That’s my sidekick for ya!” Momota gave a happy yell. Saihara looked away, embarrassed by his praise. Momota continued, “Shuichi’s absolutely right! We don’t even need to concern ourselves with Monokuma anymore. What we should focus on now is trying to escape this place! We’ll become an unstoppable team if we continue to trust and work with each other! There ain’t nothin’ in this universe that can stop us!”

Suddenly, there was a loud, unmistakable snore.

Everyone turned to the direction of the sound, trying to figure out who it was. Of course, to nobody’s surprise, it was Ouma. His eyes were shut and his mouth agape. Being able to fall asleep standing like that was an incredible feat nobody was able to wrap their heads around.

Amami nervously laughed, “Sleeping? How can he sleep at a time like this?”

Chabashira quickly stomped over to where he was. Everyone could guess what she was about to say. “Hey! Degenerate male!” she fumed, “How dare you sleep at a time like this! If you don’t wake up now, you’ll be in so much pain that you’ll feel it even in the afterlife!”

Ouma’s eyelashes fluttered, “H... H-huh?” Seeing Chabashira hovering over him like a dangerous storm, he snapped awake, “Woah! What?! What’s going on?!”  He woke up surprisingly fast. Then again, whether or not he was actually sleeping was questionable as it is. Even still, everyone had gotten so used to Ouma’s antics that they were willing to just accept it.

“You were asleep,” Amami said. “Did you not realize it?”

“Asleep?? I was??” Ouma’s eyes widened. “I’m deeply and terribly sorry! It was an accident! And that’s no lie, so you can trust it!”

“So... do you even know what we are even talking about?” Yumeno asked slowly, glaring at him from under the hat she was pulling down over her head.

“Nope! Nothing at all!” Ouma said cheerfully.

“Ouma-kun,” Akamatsu let out an annoyed sigh, “we’re having a serious conversation, so please save your naps for later. You’re wasting our time.”

“HYAAAhyahyahya!” Iruma boisterously laughed.

Everyone understood why. It was only natural that she’d be laughing at this circumstance. She did say that her inventions to avoid wasting time while sleeping were important.

Her mouth twisted into that of a grin as she cried out in utter glee, “So who was the fuck-up that said that I was wrong, huh?! Mr. Midget, here, is living proof that all you dead-asses were totally wrong and that I was totally right!!”

“Y-you don’t have to be so mean...” Shirogane said apprehensively, looking away from Iruma’s face.

“Nishishi!” Ouma giggled, “Bitch, if you think I’m a midget, then Yumeno-chan and Hoshi-chan must be on the atomic level!”

Iruma immediately reeled at the name, reverting into a meek and timid personality. She started mumbling aloud trying to justify and defend herself. Hoshi was indifferent to Ouma’s insult.

Yumeno, on the other hand, spoke up. “Hey.... Just so you know... my puberty spell hasn’t finished just yet.”

Ouma blankly looked over at her, looked down at her feet, and looked back up with an enthusiastic look on his face, “Wow! Really!? That’s really hard to believe, but I can’t wait to see it! You can do it! I believe in you!”

Yumeno lowered her head to look down at her feet, “Nyeh... really?”

“Haha, nope! It’s a lie,” Ouma said. Yumeno’s head rocketed back up to look up at him as he continued, “I hope you don’t grow taller! A stretched out Yumeno-chan sounds disguuuuusting! You’d look even uglier than you do right now!”

“Nyeh!?!” Yumeno cried out in surprise.

Unsurprisingly, Chabashira stepped in. “Hey! Degenerate! You want a pounding or don’t you? Tenko won’t hold back!”

Ouma turned towards her with an offended look on his face, “Hey now! You shouldn’t get involved in things you’re not a part of!” He gave an impish grin at her, “Or are you just that egotistic?”

Chabashira looked like she was about to snap. But before that could happen...

“Hey! Hey!! What happened to me being the main character?! Why is nobody talking to me anymore, huh!?”

There was a sudden interjection.

Everyone turned their heads at the surprise outburst. It was Monokuma again. Everyone internally groaned.

“Th-there’s no way you’re the main character!” Shirogane’s hands clenched as she yelled out towards him. “You’re the antagonist for sure!”

“Since when do main characters have to be good people?” Monokuma questioned her, tilting his head to the side. “Isn’t the anti-hero the latest trend now and days? Nobody wants a boring good guy anymore, right?”

“Either way, you’re a mascot at best!” Shirogane yelled back. “There’s no way you can be anything else other than that!”

“Nyeeeh... Either way...” Yumeno droned. “Mascots are... usually the ones that are ignored, anyways, so...”

“No! That will never happen! I refuse to become irrelevant!” Monokuma exclaimed with conviction. He soon became downcast and downtrodden, “Once you become irrelevant, your existence dies... never to return...” He lifted his head and looked directly at them, “I wonder how many people are like that, huh? Worthless and meaningless?”

“Please stop talking like that! It’s really depressing!” Kiibo asked Monokuma, but he said it so forcefully that it sounded more like an order.

“Depressing?” Monokuma looked off to the side to nowhere in particular, “This is coming from you of all things?”

Kiibo’s eyes widened, “How rude! I know what you’re implying! I will not tolerate robophobia coming from... a-another robot!”

“Anyways, I’d really love to continue this conversation, but we still have much more important things to talk about!” Monokuma sighed, “I’m really getting tired of this chapter one, already. Where’s the suspense? Where’s the excitement? Where’s the drama? I want to get to the juicy bits already!”

“Juicy?!” Ouma’s eyes glimmered. “You’re talking about juicy, gushy, bloody organs, right? You’re totally right! This boring chapter one is taking far too long!! Let’s just skip ahead already and get to the good stuff!”

“Stop playing along with Monokuma!” Momota yelled at Ouma, his voice bouncing off the walls, “It’s getting really annoying! Nobody cares if you’re bored anymore!” He turned back to Monokuma and pointed at him, “And you! Nobody cares about what you have to say anymore. You have no more tricks up your sleeve! That much is obvious!”

“Yeah!” Chabashira agreed. “The only tricks up anyone’s sleeves are Yumeno-san’s!”

“Hey... leave me out of this conversation,” Yumeno’s eyes narrowed. “Also, they’re not tricks and they don’t come out of my sleeves...Like I said... it’s magic...”

There was quiet laughter.

Everyone looked towards Monokuma again. He was just laughing coldly at them. “Puhuhu... no tricks up my sleeve, huh... puhuhu...” Everyone just stared. Monokuma looked like he was actually starting to go crazy. And he didn’t stop. He started laughing even harder. He just laughed and laughed and laughed. He continued to laugh until he finally just... stopped.

He stared out into the sea of students looking up at him, “Oh, don’t think I’ve run out of ideas. If you thought that for even a second, you’re really stupid.”

“Y-yeah right,” Akamatsu stuttered. “There’s no way you have anything else to threaten us with.”

Monokuma grinned, “Oh but there is! Everyone, please take a good look at this!” Monokuma took out another flashlight. Everyone immediately shut their eyes and covered them with their hands. Of course, Monokuma wasn’t amused, “Hey! I’m not going to use it! I just wanted to show it! Open your eyes! You’re wasting my time!”

Reluctantly, everybody uncovered their eyes. They took a good look at the flashlight Monokuma was holding high up for everyone to see. It looked like a Flashback Light, but the top of it was square and the handle was red.

“Behold! The Blackout Light!” Monokuma let out a joyous cheer, “I was really hoping to not have to resort to this. But y’know, after a month of absolute drop dead boredom, I’ve realized that sometimes compromise is necessary.”

“A Blackout Light?” Amami’s brow furrowed, “It looks like the opposite of a Flashback Light.”

“Wow, teenagers are actually smart, huh?” Monokuma pranced on top of the podium cheerfully, “Since you guys are such quick thinkers, I bet you can guess what the purpose of this is, right?”

“Keh, that’s fucking easy,” Iruma scoffed, “It’s just the opposite of a Flashback Light, right? Go on, guys, I’ll let you guys hog the glory for a bit.”

Everyone rolled their eyes and turned their attention back to Amami, who looked like he was about to say something. His eyes were turned to the floor, his hand in his chin, lost in thought.

“If Flashback Lights implant memories into us, then I can only assume...” He lifted his head towards Monokuma, “A Blackout Light’s function is to remove memories from us?”

Monokuma let the hand holding the Blackout Light drop to his side. “Sheesh, I never confirmed or denied anything about the Flashback Lights,” He smiled. “But you’re still correct about the Blackout Light! S rank for you!”

Akamatsu’s eyes widened, “It removes memories from us?” She shuddered at the thought, a worried scowl bearing heavily on her face.

Monokuma twirled with the Blackout Light in his hand, “You betcha! Just one glance at this thing and you’ll be saying night night for sure! Say goodbye to your previous memories and hello to pitch black nothingness! It’s a wild trip, for sure!” Monokuma stopped and looked at them with a sinister look, “Well, not like you’d even remember it.”

“Alright. Then use it,” Momota challenged.

There was deafening silence.

It took a second or two to process what Momota had dared Monokuma to do. Following that silence was an uproar unlike any other.

Monokuma spoke amongst the yelling students, “What? You think this is a bluff?? Please. Do you really think I wouldn’t? Don’t you think it’s unwise to gamble on that idea? It’d be so easy for me to do, really! It would be wiser for you to use the knowledge you have now and start the killing game already! It’s much more likely that you could be the next victim if you allow me to get rid of your memories and start over from scratch!”

Saihara’s eyes darted aimlessly at the floor, a hand on his face. “Well...”his eyes flickered and he looked back up at Monokuma, “If it’s as easy as you say it is, why haven’t you done it already?”

Monokuma fell silent.

“That’s... a good point...” Akamatsu spoke. “You could have done this at any time, right? Why has it taken you until now to threaten us with this? You could have done this immediately when we failed to fall for your first motive. But you didn’t.”

Saihara continued, “Because you didn’t, that brings only this to question. Why didn’t you? Is it because you can’t? Or is it because you don’t want to?”

Monokuma tilted his head to the side, “...what are you, the world’s greatest power couple?”

Their cheeks were instantly tinted pink.

“Answer his question!” Momota demanded.

“Hmm... Well, regardless of what I say, you won’t believe me, right?” Monokuma sighed with a surly look, placing the Blackout Light on the edge of the stage floor.

Monokuma sat down right next to it, crossing his arms in thought, “Let’s face it. I could have used this thing hundreds of times by now, y’know? You have no idea, right? I could’ve been reusing this Blackout Light whenever I want to and you’d all be clueless.”

He rested his chin in his palm, “What if I told you I got tired of doing this over and over again? What if I told you guys that every time I gave you a motive, you guys weren’t motivated at all? What if I wanted to try something different to see if that would cause you all to start the killing already?” He spread out his arms and shrugged, “You have no idea.”

“Those are obviously fake stories!” Momota proclaimed confidently. “You’re just telling us anything to try to make us think everything we’ve done up ‘til now was pointless! You just want us to freak out so that we do something without thinking! That’s all it is!”

“Hmm,” Monokuma placed his hands on his knees, “you can say that all you like. But you can’t exactly disprove what I’m saying, can you?”

“It’s not like you can prove it either,” Amami said.

“Sure. But regardless, things are all going to stay the same if you don’t try to get out,” Monokuma sighed.

“Heh,” Momota laughed, “we don’t need you or your rules to escape from here, y’know?”

“Aww, it’s cute that you think that,” Monokuma laughed, swaying his feet back and forth almost like a child would before jumping off the stage.

He ambled towards the students. He closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, “Well, go ahead and try your hardest, then! Go on, I dare you! There is no way to escape from here besides through murder! You’ll be trapped here for the rest of time. Your goals and dreams will be utterly destroyed and your friends and loved ones will forever be out of your reach. You’ll be forever isolated, slowly going insane in this small oppressive world.”

Yumeno’s eyes widened, her body filling up with unease, “Hey... Wait... What are...?”

Everyone’s eyes flickered between the Blackout Light on the stage and Monokuma. They all just stood there, unease starting to rise up within them all. When realization hit her, Akamatsu knew she needed to do something, and fast.

As quick as lightning, she yelled out, “N-no, that’s wrong! We’re all friends who are going to work together to prove you wrong! I’m certain of it!”

“Whaaat? Are you for real?” Monokuma jutted his head out at her and squinted his eyes, “Didn’t you say that you’d all be friends _after_ you escape from here? You should remember your lines better.”

“It’s already been a whole month since we’ve met each other!” she scowled, “I... I can change my mind about that, can’t I?”

“Sure sure,” Monokuma waved her off, “Just know that friends can still betray and kill each other.”

“Hey! Uh... Pops!!” Monosuke yelled at to him.

“What? What do you want?” Monokuma looked over at Monosuke, “Can’t you see your father is busy?”

“FATHER-THE-STAGE,” Monodam urged.

Monokuma turned around. His jaw dropped. “Hey! You! What do you think you’re doing!?”

Ouma was holding the Blackout light.

“Aha, whoops!” Ouma put a hand to his mouth. He looked surprised, but he was still smiling. “Time to skedaddle!”

Ouma broke out into a sprint. The Monokubs ran in his direction to block his path and stop him. Ouma paid them no mind however. He jumped over them with ease. He made his way towards the exit with the Monokubs in tail. Swiftly, he shoved the door open and ran away. His fading laughter could still be heard as the door swung shut with a loud crash.

The Monokubs stopped at the door. They were stunned. They slowly turned their heads towards Monokuma as did the rest of the class.

Monokuma looked pissed. His fury was clear to everyone in the room. The Monokubs looked back at him in terror. The students, however, were smiling. They couldn’t help it. It was just too funny.

“F-father!” Monotaro stuttered, looking back at Monokuma with a frightened look on his face, “What do we do?!”

The other Monokubs joined in with their own worries. They begged for instruction, quailing in fear.

Monokuma started to fume, his fist shaking, “That little... Ugh... Why he... He thinks he can... He... Can just... Well... this is certainly interesting, now isn’t it!?”

The Monokubs went silent. Everyone stared at Monokuma. He had his hands to his stomach, chuckling to himself.

“Daddy?” Monofunny looked at him uneasily. “What do you mean? Why do you look so calm about this?”

Monokuma gave a little wave as he made his way back onto the stage, “Upupupu... Don’t you worry, my little kubs! Everything is just fine. We have plenty of spares anyways.” He jumped up onto the podium, “I wanted the Blackout Light to be the next motive anyways. Besides, don’t you think this development has made things a little bit more interesting? Perhaps having more than one Blackout Light as a threat is even better!”

“Sh-shit, are you for real?” Momota’s face paled as he looked towards the exit. “We need to get that Blackout Light back!” As soon as he said it, he pivoted on his heel and took off, running after Ouma.

“Momota-kun!” Saihara cried out. “Wait a minute!” But it was too late. He was already out the door.

“Anyways, like I was saying,” everyone’s gaze focused back onto Monokuma as he spoke, “your new motives are those Blackout Lights! If a murder doesn’t happen in two days, I promise you that your memories of your time here will all be erased for good! That much is guaranteed! Be sure to keep that in mind!” Monokuma laughed.

And with that, he and the Monokubs disappeared. The class was blanketed in silence. They turned to each other, unsure what to say. Sure, Monokuma wasn’t threatening to kill them this time, but the threat was still very dangerous. If Monokuma went through with this motive, all the work they had put in would have all been for nothing.

Akamatsu spoke up, “Guys, we already know this is all one big bluff. He can’t directly interfere with us anyways.”

“...Well, that’s obvious,” Harukawa agreed, “What I’m worried about is Ouma. If anyone is going to cause a problem, it’s him.” Akamatsu nodded her head in agreement.

“Yes, Harukawa-san is right!” Chabashira agreed, “Out of all the degenerates here he is by far the most troublesome one! Despite Shinguuji-san being disgustingly creepy, at least he doesn’t do anything!”

Shinguuji looked like he was about to speak up to defend himself, but Amami promptly interjected.

“Now now,” he began, “We shouldn’t be trying to pick a fight here. It’s counterproductive.”

“I do agree with Harukawa, though. I don’t think Ouma should be holding onto that thing,” Hoshi recommended. “That kid is nothing but trouble. It should be given to someone much more reliable.”

“My vote’s on Saihara-kun,” Amami said. He looked at Saihara with a happy expression on his face. “He seems perfectly capable.”

“Yes!” Shirogane agreed, “He seems like the perfect person to give it to!”

“I would have suggested Akamatsu-san...” Chabashira looked a little disappointed at first, but that quickly changed, “But Saihara-san is fine too!”

“I agree!” Kiibo stood tall and proud in front of all of them, “Saihara-kun these past few weeks has been very reliable!”

“Nyahahaha! Very reliable, indeed!” Angie cheered.

“What? Me?” Saihara hesitated, “Are you guys sure?”

He looked over at Akamatsu, who gave him a large smile back.

“Of course we’re sure!” She beamed, “Saihara-kun, you’ve become quite assertive and useful over these past few weeks. Of course we’d think you’re reliable! You have really become... quite cool.”

Saihara lifted his hand up to reach for his hat to pull it down, completely forgetting he didn’t have it on. He scratched his head instead, his face tinted red from the flattery.

“...Alright. I’m fine with holding onto it,” he gave a small smile as his hand dropped from his head, “but first, we need to get it back...” he chuckled.

“Yes, that would be a wise call. After that, we will continue to wait and defy Monokuma, yes?” Toujou queried.

“No fuckin’ shit!” Iruma cackled, “Alright bitches! Let’s go find that cocksucker and kick him down to his knees! Right where he’s used to it!”

“...Shall we?” Amami gestured towards the door, ignoring Iruma’s comment. He started to walk towards the door, “Hopefully, if it all ends like this, there won’t be anything else left to overcome.” Everyone trailed behind him with confident looks on their faces. Everyone could only agree with him, a mixture of hope and dread filling their hearts once more.

* * *

Saihara and Akamatsu were right to call Monokuma’s bluff. Even after the second day had passed, Monokuma did absolutely nothing to them. Yes, they didn’t fully understand why he didn’t, but nobody complained. They were all happy to be alive. They continued to fight against Monokuma together, as a team.

Even then, Monokuma wasn’t done trying to convince them to start the bloodshed. The list of motives he provided continued to get longer and longer. Every possible motive you could possibly think of was offered.

He offered wealth and fame.

Nobody was convinced by that.

He turned on and off the obnoxious music that played before the time limit ran up during their first motive, trying to ruin their sleep.

This was easily resolved with Iruma. She destroyed and took down the monitor and speaker sets in the dorms itself after Akamatsu remembered the dorm rooms were soundproof.

He locked and glued everyone out of the dormitories and started playing the music again. This problem was also easily resolved when Iruma broke down the front doors to the dormitories with a drill she made.

They tried to use the drill on the wall surrounding the academy, but Monokuma quickly stopped that. He ended up creating a new rule in direct response to their actions.

Rule fourteen, ‘Students purposefully breaking or climbing over the wall surrounding the academy is strictly prohibited and will be punished accordingly,’ was added into their Monopads. Despite how easily and quickly he stopped them, they continued onwards.

Seeing how they couldn’t break the surronding walls anymore, they started to break down the walls of the academy itself. They soon discovered their talent rooms and less useful areas like the pool.

Monokuma immediately made another rule after stepping foot into the pool area. He prohibited swimming in it during nighttime. It seemed a little pointless in their current situation. But Saihara guessed he was trying to add more rules so that someone would die already. Everybody laughed at the idea, which didn’t please Monokuma one bit.

They could never find Chabashira, Kiibo, or Ouma’s labs, but it didn’t matter that much. None of their labs provided any use. Even when they arrived at Amami’s room. They had hoped his room would have answers about his talent and perhaps their situation. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. All they could do is look at each other confused and were left with even more questions.

Despite having questions, they refused to talk to Monokuma anymore. In fact, it was Monokuma who was trying to talk to them. He was desperately trying to find a huge weakness within anybody he could use.

Nobody was willing to give him the time of day, though. Ouma would occasionally talk to him, telling him to start the exciting killing game already, but that was it. He was treated like a pest and ignored whenever possible. They still kept a close eye on him, though. It was only necessary to know what he was up to.

Monokuma wasn't pleased. Every time they made their way into a new area, Monokuma looked more and more frustrated. The Monokubs looked increasingly lost and terrified, unsure what to do. They didn't know how to help their father. They could only stand and watch.

The motives Monokuma made just became even more extreme as time went on. Eventually it got up to the point where Monokuma blocked off all access to the warehouse's food supply with his own mob of Monokumas. He told them he wasn't going to move until a murder occurred. 

He told them to murder before they all starved to death.

Three weeks in, all the students felt like they were dead inside. They were living on purely water alone. It was like they were prisoners on a hunger strike.

Well, they knew that was exactly what they were doing. They were rebelling against the tyrannical force of Monokuma. They were fighting a world they wanted nothing to do with. Everyone felt like they had already come too far to give up and cave in to his demands, even with the looming fear of starvation hanging over their heads.

They didn’t know how long they were going to be able to last, though. During the first week and a half, everybody seemed to be doing okay. But soon, their bodies started to itch and complain from the lack of food. They just felt general discomfort within their bodies. However, this quickly turned into abdominal pain.

The pain slowly began to rise within each and every one of them. It was a dull pain, but it felt sharp all the same. That pain spread throughout their entire body. But no matter how they complained, they couldn’t do anything about it.

Eventually, they all sat together in the dormitory’s main hall, their bodies all not able to properly function. Kiibo, being the only one who didn’t require food, was unanimously nominated water boy. Everyone could see he was desperately trying to keep everyone functioning. But that wasn’t going to last long without any food.

Soon, the desire for food started to vanish as their bodies started to shut down. They started to fade in and out of consciousness as time went by.

They were all weak. Weak and tired. Everyone craved the idea of falling into peaceful unconsciousness. But they were fearful of it all the same, knowing it could be their last time staring out at the world around them.

The bright light above from the dormitory’s ceiling used to feel so oppressive and harsh. Now everything was starting to feel soft and numb. The area surrounding them could only be labeled as a sad place to go.

It was hard to focus on anything. The world itself seemed quite blurry, but it wasn’t tears that were causing that. Their minds were simply starting to ground to a halt, their vision starting to fail.

* * *

“Y... Yumeno-san,” a voice spoke from next to her. They were both leaning against the side of the dormitory staircase.

Yumeno’s gaze shifted towards the voice, though she already knew who it was. Her eyes started to focus again, just from the sound alone. However, her body was still tired. Too tired to turn her head to look at their face, she just gazed at their feet.

“Nnn.... Chaba...shira... What...?” Yumeno’s jaw hurt.

She didn’t want to talk. After all the pain she went through, she liked the numb feeling. But when she moved, her body groaned and the numbness started to fade. It was exhausting. It was tiring. But more than that, it was painful.

“Even if... our time... was short...” Chabashira uttered, clearly trying to muster up the energy to say what she needed to say, “T... Tenko... was... so happy to... spend... time with... you...”

“D-don’t talk.... like... that. Th... this isn’t... a double... suicide...” Yumeno whispered, trying her hardest to get her point across.

“Ha... Right... You’re so cool... You’d... never agree to... that... would you?” Chabashira sounded like she was smiling, but Yumeno didn’t know for sure. She was too tired to turn her head to look.

“Nnaa... no... not after... all this...” Yumeno knew that what she was saying wasn’t exactly correct. After all, this option was ultimately their choice. Refusing to kill each other and living with whatever option was left, was still their choice.

Yumeno didn’t know what to say. She clearly enjoyed the time they spent together, even if it was short and wasn’t very fun. Yumeno didn’t feel that way, though. She didn’t want to hurt Chabashira’s feelings by telling her the truth, though.

The time they spent in this school was a living nightmare. Nothing would change her mind about that. They tried so hard to have hope. They tried ridiculously hard. They raised their hopes as high as they possibly could. They raised their hopes so high only to be kicked down into despair.

They took so many risks and they did all they could to escape. But it wasn’t enough. No matter how hard they tried, it was all for nothing. And now here they were, ready to die just like Monokuma said they would. Ready to die pointless and meaningless deaths.

But even still, she wanted to truly believe that they weren’t just killing themselves off. It was much more than that. They had rebelled and they didn’t do what Monokuma wanted. They achieved an ending that Monokuma didn’t want.

Would that be enough? Can that be enough? Did they even make a difference in the end? She really and truly wanted to believe that they did. Even if that was just a lie she had to grasp to feel better about herself, she wanted to believe it and make it the truth.

“Y-Yumeno-san...” A whimper. Chabashira? “C-Can you... h-hold me?”

Yumeno’s heart immediately sunk.

Chabashira’s voice was strained and weak, but she still heard it. During her time here, Yumeno pushed herself away from all the negative emotions she felt. She was far too sensitive for her own good.  It’s something she had to do to protect herself. She just needed to ignore it. However, her heart couldn’t avoid feeling the sadness and fear behind Chabashira’s words.

“If Tenko... is... going to d-die... Tenko... wants to... at least... die... in your arms...”

It was so utterly sad. Chabashira, someone so strong, was now practically pleading with her to give her some form of comfort.

Yumeno bit her lip. She felt like she should react to her words. However, her body refused. She wanted to cry. She felt like she should cry. But the tears never came. She was just too tired. Just... so tired. Too tired to cry. Too tired to whimper. Too tired to even look at her.

“P-Please...” Yumeno heard a quiet tear trick to the ground next to her.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Mustering up the last of her strength, she lifted her hand. Her whole body groaned. She just wanted to drop her hand back down, close her eyes, and pass out.

She refused.

She rested her hand onto the back of Chabashira’s hand.

“I... I can’t... move. Too... tired....” Yumeno responded in a whisper.

“That’s... okay... this is... perfect,” Chabashira smiled. “Tenko... is... going to... end up in... heaven... with you... right?”

“Like... I said... this isn’t...”

“It’s... okay, Yumeno-san. No need... to be... strong... Everyone... already knows... this will be... the end.”

They stopped talking.

As Yumeno held onto Chabashira, she thought to herself that maybe it was easier just to die. Maybe a simple death right now would just be easier for everyone. There would be less suffering. Her body felt like it was in turmoil. One part of her wanted to die and rest in peace and the other wanted to live and survive.

Well, it wasn’t like she had any choice in deciding that fate now. They had picked the harsher path to follow. She just had to follow wherever it took her and everyone else. The last option left for them was to just accept the outcome for what it was. Simply a tragedy.

The only thing she could do was wish things could have ended better. She wanted a peaceful and happy ending so bad. She was so desperate for that. Her mind filled with regret after regret, pouring out of her like a broken faucet. She knew that she didn’t do much during their time there.

If only she were smarter. If only she had tried harder. If only she had done something more. She didn’t know what else she could have done, though. Even still, her mind was still filled to the brim with these thoughts and regrets.

Chabashira’s hand was so cold. Hers wasn’t any better. Even so, together, they still were able to feel the tiniest bit of comfort just through that alone. That maybe, just maybe, everything was going to be alright.

If she was about to go, at least she wouldn’t be alone. At least they would go together. Maybe there could be some meaning in that, if nothing else.

The world was starting to turn fuzzy around her. The feet that her half-lidded eyes had been staring at were starting to blur by the second. Her eyes weren’t able to focus anymore. Was this it?

It’s okay. She was prepared for it. She took a deep breath in.

The feeling of Chabashira’s hand slowly faded away as Yumeno’s entire world faded to black.


	2. The Painfully Accustomed Standstill

Yumeno’s eyes flashed open and fell into a half-lidded gaze.

Her eyes darted around the room, taking in her surroundings, trying to process where she was. As she looked around, she started to understand why she woke up. An alarm was beeping from on top of a nightstand.

With that alone, that’s all she needed to recognize where she was.

She was in her room. She was alone. Chabashira wasn’t there and her body felt like it existed again. Her heart was pumping and everything she touched felt tangible. The pillow under her head and the one she was hugging next to her, the sheets on her bed, and the nightcap and pajamas she wore felt so palpable that it almost felt real.

Well, that’s probably because it was real.

She stretched out her arm and shoulder off the bed, reaching for her alarm. She felt like gravity was going to conquer her and cause her to fall face-first onto the floor bellow, but she was too sleepy and annoyed to stop.

When she grasped it, she pulled it towards her, turned it around, and switched it off. The noise halted. She let the hand she was holding the alarm clock in fall back onto the bed with a soft plop. She turned into her pillow and groaned.

Yumeno pushed herself up and off the bed, her brain starting to churn. Giving out a large yawn, she placed her alarm clock back onto the nightstand. Her legs drowsily stomped towards her closet to get ready for the day.

To be honest, she didn’t know what she was getting ready for. Either way, she absentmindedly followed her daily routine. As she opened the closet, she had a realization.

 _Oh... right..._ she thought to herself as she took a coat off of a hanger.

Today was the start of May, so she had to start preparing for her usual event.

Today also marked the eighth month of their imprisoned school life.

* * *

Yumeno walked down the stairs of the dormitories, a plastic orange step stool in hand. The morning was dead quiet, the sound of her footsteps being the only sign of life within the room.

When she reached the bottom, she turned to the side of the staircase facing towards her door. The same spot she and Chabashira had sat together a long time ago. Now there was a new object in their place.

A plain calendar hung off the side of the railing. Toujou had hung it up on the girl’s staircase around three months into the killing game. It was around the time they all had accepted the fact that they were going to have to live there permanently. They thought it was in their best interest to keep track of how much time was passing by.

When Toujou went looking in the warehouse for a calendar to use, this was the only calendar left that wasn’t burnt to a crisp. It didn’t manage to avoid all damage, though. The right corner of the booklet was a bit charred. But what could you do? They should be grateful they even had one at all.

The calendar she found needed to be hung up by a nail. To refrain from damaging the walls any more than necessary, Toujou modified it. She used a bit of twine and let it hang off of the lower part of the staircase’s railing.

Starting with January, Toujou had been marking the days off as they came and went. But, as the months passed, she started to become apathetic towards continuing. The calendar remained unmarked and untouched for a week or so until Yumeno decided to step in. It didn’t feel right to stop.

Placing the step stool in front of the calendar she stepped onto it, reaching for the twine on her tiptoes and struggling to undo the knot. Yumeno was grateful for Toujou’s relative reliability. But regardless of how reliable she was, that didn’t mean her own day to day life was completely struggle free. Several seconds passed of her fiddling and struggling, trying to take it down. Eventually succeeding, Yumeno took the calendar down with a relieved grunt. Lightheaded, she flipped the page.

It was now May. Well, at least that’s what they all unanimously decided. Nobody had any questionable idea what the real date was. Nor could they find out. So it was May.

She realized she forgot to mark off yesterday. Yumeno flipped back to the previous page of April, admiring the nearly filled out page. She reached up for the red marker resting on the staircase. It was right in the nook of the staircase’s steps, far away in the corner so that it would be hard to step on accidentally.

Yumeno grabbed the marker and popped the cap open. Marking off the thirtieth, she let out a sigh of accomplishment. She couldn't understand how something simple like this could leave her feeling accomplished. Then again, she didn’t understand many things. She could accept her ignorance on this one matter. She didn't care. Discovering the exact reason why would be too much of a hassle to do.

She flipped the page back to May and hung it back up to rest on the side of the staircase again. Placing the marker back where she grabbed it, she stepped down and off of the step stool.

She started to reach down to pick it up when she had a feeling of irritation run throughout her entire body. She straightened back up. Sliding the step stool with her foot, she pushed it underneath the staircase.

“What a pain...” she murmured as she made her way out of the dormitories.

Stepping outside, Yumeno was greeted by the bright glare of daylight. Her eyes naturally squinted as she let out a faint breath as she looked out at the familiar area around her.

The grass, trees, nor bushes had any trace of green to be seen. The trees and bushes were close to becoming barren and empty. Dead and rotting leaves from the trees and bushes were littered everywhere. They were across the grass and pavement, no area left empty. The only exception was the path that everyone would usually walk through.

The grass was dried up and wilted with a camel hue to it. It was so dried up that Yumeno couldn't help but wonder if the blades of grass would snap from merely stepping on it. It was all just a large assortment of dark and light browns.

Upon first glance, it’d look like it were fall. Though, it wasn’t, as far as she could tell. It still felt like spring or summer temperature. Was this place even capable of replicating the turning seasons?

Either way, the scenery around her was clearly not fall. At least with fall, you could get a sense that everything around you was still alive.

But here? No. It felt dead.

The pavement was badly cracked and chipped away. Dust and small particles visibly blew by her heels as the breeze gently carried it around. Luckily, the breeze was too light to cause it to blow into her face and make her cough and sneeze. However, walking too briskly and carelessly would cause it to kick up. The courtyard was just annoying, that way. It was a bad sight to see. But if one thought that the courtyard was bad, they should look at the walls surrounding them.

The walls, along with the bars incasing them above, were scorched all around. Black, brown, and silver colored metals were horribly plastered and mixed together. It was a horrible half-melted, half-scorched mess. Looking at it from down bellow, it all looked extremely dangerous. Like it could all just break apart and come crashing down at any moment.

The school had already felt like it had been abandoned for a long time when they had initially arrived. The overgrown greenery and wildflowers had just screamed of this idea. Now, it felt like the school itself was starting to rot.

Yumeno made her way past the courtyard and airily stepped onto the stairs to the main hall. The door, fortunately, still worked. She was grateful the doors were still functioning. She tried to imagine walking into the main hall through one of the many gaping holes in the school building. Then she tried to imagine doing that day after day. Yeah, it definitely would be a hassle.

Nonchalantly, she pushed the main hall’s door open, greeted by the familiar wreckage. The walls and floor were cracked like the pavement outside. Through some openings, you could see the rebars and mesh of the building itself. The plant life that used to peak out from inside the building was just as dead and dried up as outside’s plant life was. Instead of small wildflowers, the floor was now filled with holes and chunks of rubble, dust, and metal.

Most of the rubble and dust had been brushed off to the side. The larger pieces remained as they were, though. They were quite heavy and difficult to move. Besides, there was an adequate path for them to walk around with already, so there was no need to in the first place.

Yumeno thought the main hall seemed different than usual, though.

She looked towards the open lamp stands and had her suspicions confirmed. There were six of them in the lobby area total. There were two on each side of the entrances to the two branching hallways and the main entrance itself. The two to the left hallway were off.

Yumeno walked over to them and toggled their switches on and off. There was no response. They were probably broken.

A good assortment of items that required electricity before were now hopelessly broken. None of the hallway lights worked anymore. So they had to come up with their own alternative light source. They opted to use open lamp stands and an assortment of outlet extensions.

It took quite a while to set up and it took even longer to find outlets that were still working. It was quite a hassle, but at least they could see where they were going now. The main hall was far too dark to have no lights on at all. And this was even with the windows and the gaping holes connected to the outside.

Yumeno was grateful that the dormitory’s lights were still working. Not having proper lighting to use sounded like a pain. Even still, that didn’t change her frustration with everything else around her.

She stared at the bulbs. They probably needed to be replaced. That in itself was annoying, though. She heard from Toujou that their light bulb supply was running dry. And it wasn't like they could go outside and buy new ones. She gave a slight shrug and continued down her path to the dining hall.

She soon reached the hallway to the dining hall, school store, and warehouse. It looked no better than the rest of the building.

The warehouse had a large gaping hole where the door used to be. It was so large that even the wall next to it was affected, having its own section where you could peer outside. It was just that large. She felt her bitter feelings rise up tenfold within her.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she took a couple steps forward. She placed her hands on the door to the dining hall, and pushed. She was greeted by the warm wafting smell of miso soup in the kitchen, the rice balls, and plastic cups on the table.

Yumeno frowned.

She made her way into the kitchen, stopping at the entrance at the sight of Toujou, her back was facing towards her. She was slowly pouring soup into small, separate, plastic bowls.

Yumeno squinted her eyes at her for a brief second before taking a couple steps forward. “Toujou,” she said.

There was a second delay, but Toujou quickly and eloquently turned around to face her, a light smile on her face, “Yumeno-san. Good morning. I trust you slept well?”

“Nnn... better than usual, I guess...” Yumeno replied, thinking back to her previous nightmares from before. “How about you?”

“I slept well, thank you for asking.” She turned and immediately went back to pouring soup.

She always looked ready to work and have her photo taken for an advertisement, even when it wasn’t necessary. She could be in her pajamas and nobody would care. However, she seemed to have some standards, even when nobody really had any.

“Why are you up?” Yumeno grumpily asked, giving out a large yawn as Toujou lazily stirred the soup with ladle in hand.

“Well,” Toujou started, “I thought I would make breakfast for everyone first and then rest.”

Yumeno frowned again, “...I thought I told you I’ve got it covered.”

“Yes, I realize. And pray tell. What have you been feeding everyone these last few days?"

“C-canned beans and raisins...” Yumeno admitted, slightly embarrassed, unsure as to why Toujou was making her say it to her face. After all, she already knew. She fed her that meal just yesterday.

“Those choices are all well and good, but not alone, and certainly not together." She lifted the ladle to pour more soup. "It’s been three days since our last proper meal, so it’s fine.”

Filling the last bowl, Toujou closed the lid to the pot and brought the ladle to the kitchen sink. Inside, there were two tubs of water. She nonchalantly squirted some dish soap into one of the tubs and started washing the ladle. All the while, she continued to talk. “It’s an easier job for me to do rather than for you, who has little to no experience with such a thing.”

“Nnn...” Yumeno looked off to the side, “Are... you sure?”

“Yumeno-san, I appreciate your concern. But I assure you, I am fine.” Toujou rinsed the ladle in the clean tub and put it on the drying rack next to her.

“If you say so...” Yumeno trailed off, unsure how else to convince her.

She gave Yumeno an insipid smile. “Do not worry. I’ll go back to my dorm room after my deliveries.”

“Nyeh... no, let me do it.”

“Yumeno-san, I appreciate your help, but I can do it myself.”

“No... I was planning on doing it today anyways... You just clean up.” Yumeno walked towards the countertop.

“...Very well. If that is your wish, I will get you the plates.” Toujou reached for a dry hand towel right in front of the drying rack, drying her hands. She then reached up to the cabinet to the right of the sink.

On the countertop, there were eight trays and soup bowls neatly next to each other. Picking up the trays, Yumeno split them into four separate stacks. She then started to place the soup bowls on the very top, two for each stack.

“Oh... Toujou,” she whisked her head towards her. “It’s May 1st. If you’re feeling okay, please come to my show.”

“Ah,” she responded. Taking out the plates Yumeno was going to need, she shut the cabinet softly closed. “If time allows, I will do my best to attend.”

Toujou walked over and placed the plates next to her. And with that, she went back to the sink to wash a pot and an assortment of other items clean.

Yumeno glanced at her with a disbelieving look on her face.

* * *

With two trays, two rice balls, two soup bowls, and two cups of water, Yumeno now had a goal. Deliver food to everyone, subtracting the people who didn’t need food. They were the people who were responsible enough to actually get their own food. Or had never asked for it. Or they were missing.

Regarding the people who were missing, she had no idea where they were. She wasn’t exactly keeping track. She assumed they were fine. Probably. Maybe. She didn’t want to think about it.

She wished she had a cart or a trolley. Something with wheels to make everything easier. She didn’t like having to split up the food and run back and forth from the kitchen to the others. But she didn’t. She faintly remembered the image of a trolley in the warehouse. It was a faraway memory, but during their first couple of weeks there, she swore they had one. But, she hadn’t seen it there since. She wondered if it got destroyed. If it did, that was a shame. A good waste of a trolley.

Either way, the floor was far too cracked to handle something like transporting food. The debris from the half broken walls made some areas only possible to traverse by foot. It would probably be dangerous to bring food around with a cart in this kind of environment. It might spill, after all. Internally complaining, she made her way to the stairs.

She made her way to Shinguuji’s lab first. Shinguuji, now and days, would never sleep in his dorm room. Not because he was too lazy to, but because he liked the way his lab looked. Well, that’s what he told her. Sleeping on the hard floor didn’t sound very comfortable. But Shinguuji did a lot of things that she thought was strange. He just looked and acted weird in general.

Despite that, he hadn’t done anything particularly worrying during their time there. His relationship with his sister was creepy and made her incredibly uncomfortable. But aside from that, he seemed decent. Just decent. Nothing more and nothing less.

Arriving at Shinguuji’s lab door, she took in a deep breath, “Shinguuji!” she yelled out, “Breakfast!!”

There was no response.

“Shinguuji!” She called him again.

Nothing.

 _Great..._ she thought to herself.

Placing her foot at the corner of his door, she tried to slide it open. She struggled a bit, but it was only a several second battle. The door soon cracked slightly open. Sliding her boot into the door’s opening, she pushed it open all the way, letting it slam against the frame.

She was greeted by familiar statues, artifacts, and books. Yumeno was always slightly amazed by how much was in there. Monokuma had definitely put some time and effort into the place. There were just floors and floors of books, knowledge, and history within this room. It was just so grand, even with all the laser markings and broken bookshelves. It made her talent lab look shabby, dull, and tiny in comparison. But she liked her room, regardless.

She wondered if Shinguuji would ever finish reading all the books here. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was already acquainted with most of the material here, though. He did seem to recognize almost everything when he first came here a while back. He had the happiest expression she had ever seen from him. Well, the happiest one subtracting all the times he talked about his sister.

“Shinguuji! Breakfast!!” she called out again.

Nothing.

She sighed.

She guessed she was going to have to climb up and check.

Slowly, she made her way up the stairs. As she made her way up, she thought to herself how she’d kill him internally if he turned out to not be here just this once. Once she hit the staircase to the third floor, though, she saw him. A small wave of relief washed over her.

He was hunched over on the bottom stairs, his arms resting on his knees with his eyes shut. His hat lay next to him, large headphones replacing where his hat typically would be.

“Shinguuji. Hey.” She tried to get his attention. But he wasn’t responding. Could he not hear her, still?

 _...Fine_ , she thought to herself.

She stomped a foot down onto the staircase’s steps. Hard.

His eyes flickered open immediately. His eyes darted around until he focused in on Yumeno in front of him. He looked surprised, but that quickly changed. With one swift motion, he pulled his headphones off his ears and let it hang loosely around his neck.

“Oh. Yumeno-san. Good morning,” he shifted to sit more upright as she brought her foot back down and off the step.

“Morning,” she curtly greeted. “Sorry... did I disturb you?”

“No, not at all,” he waved it off with a friendly look on his face. “I was merely meditating.”

“Meditating? At this hour?”

“I woke up late today. My sleep schedule has been... all over the place, to put it delicately,” he explained.

“All over the place?” she tilted her head. “Why?”

“Well, Sister likes to communicate through me during the most unconventional of hours. Even still, I welcome it. It reminds me of days long past,” he explained. He wrapped his arms around himself, a love struck look appearing on his face, “When she leaves me, how I long to feel her warmth again. Her warmth encasing me while I sleep is just... such a comfort. She is like a ray of sunshine, shining down upon me in the cruelest and darkest of nights!”

“Nnnnnaaayeeeeah. I see....”

 _Creepy_ , Yumeno thought to herself.

She wished he would just keep his disturbing imagery to himself. Well, his sister was dead, so no matter how weird he talked, it didn’t really matter anymore, did it?

Yumeno decided to change the subject.

“Wait... but... you can meditate... like that?”

“Ah. Yes, well...” Shinguuji looked like he was starting to calm back down. “It’s not necessarily important to do it in a certain pose as long as you are comfortable and can focus in on your breath. After all, you’re just looking to find inner peace within yourself.”

“Nyeh? Really? Oh...” Yumeno shook her head. “Wait, no that’s not what I mean. I’m asking how you can meditate to something so... loud.”

“Loud? I’m not listening to anything of the sort,” he stated. “On the contrary, I’m listening to something rather calm and peaceful. It’s called _Feuilles Mortes_.” He pointed towards the CD case lying next to the portable CD player he was using. “It’s a prelude, according to this.”

“Feu... what?” she gave a perplexed look.

“ _Feuilles Mortes_. It’s by a composer named Debussy. It’s a classical song,” he picked up the CD case and turned it to the back. His eyes scanned through the list of tracks before his eyes landed upon the one he was looking for. “Ah. _Dead Leaves_ , is what it’s translated as.”

“If it’s just calm classical music... your headphones must be really good...” She noted aloud. “I called you several times and you didn’t hear me.”

“Oh, I do apologize. They must be.” He picked up the cord by the microphone, rubbing it absentmindedly with his fingers. “Akamatsu-san should feel grateful that so much of her room is still intact. Her room is filled with a surprising amount of high quality equipment and valuables. It would have been a shame if most, if not all of it were to be destroyed. It must have cost a fortune to pay for it all.”

“Don’t get jealous... Your room seems far more expensive than her’s will ever be...”

“I would not doubt that,” he agreed instantly, picking up his hat from next to him and placing it back onto his head. “Anyways, you should try meditating sometime. It is quite relaxing and it is quite good for you.”

“...N-No thanks. I’m good. Can... Can you just take your food already?” Yumeno grunted. “It’s heavy.”

“Oh, yes.” Shinguuji shifted himself forward towards her. “I apologize once more.”

“It’s okay.” Yumeno lifted the trays up and out towards him so that he would be able to grab what he needed to.

He took a tray from the very bottom of the stack and took one of each item from the top. “Today’s food looks quite... appetizing. Not to say your recent food hasn’t been, but...” Shinguuji trailed off, looking a bit happy. That just annoyed Yumeno, though.

“Nyeh... if you don’t want my food, don’t eat it. It’s a waste,” she said, trying to appear as if she didn’t care either way.

“Toujou-san made the food today, yes?” he asked. “Perhaps you should ask her to teach you. Cooking is quite a useful, yet undervalued skill in our modern era.” He placed his tray onto the stairs next to him with an adequate amount of delicacy.

“Well...” Yumeno glanced to the side.

“Let me guess, she said no?”

“H-huh?!” she sputtered. “H-how’d you know?!”

Despite him wearing a mask, his smile was apparent. “Well, I just made an assumption,” he explained with indifference in his voice.

Yumeno bit her lip. Shinguuji was really good at reading people.

“Anyways... I’m having my usual magic show today. If you have the time, please come. It’s in the gym like usual.” Yumeno turned slightly to make her exit.

“I’ll drop by if time allows. Thank you for the food, Yumeno-san. Give Toujou-san my thanks as well,” Shinguuji waved as she turned around the rest of the way to leave.

She let out a sigh as she made her way back down the stairs. That was one down, seven more to go. Next on her list was Angie.

She was on the same floor as Shinguuji, so going to her next was just easier for her to do. She was always located in her own research lab as well. Doing what, exactly? Yumeno didn’t really know. Knowing her, she was obsessing over her art with god’s divine will guiding her, or whatever she usually said.

She walked through the dark and dreary halls. She soon saw her door, which stood out in bold yellow. Walking towards the door, she looked down at the floor next to her. She noticed a hundred milliliter bottle with red fluid inside it. She quickly turned away, making it a point to not look at it.

Yumeno thought Angie was joking with her talk of blood offerings when they first met. But no, she wasn’t. Not at all. It made her sick to her stomach. She didn’t like the thought of blood.

Whatever. It’s not like she was responsible of disposing it, anyways.

Yumeno shook her head and focused back on the door again.

“Angie! Food’s here!”

Angie didn’t reply. Yumeno wasn’t worried, though. It was always like this with her.

“Angie! There’s a magic show today at the gym, if you’d like to come! I’m going to leave your food at the door! Please eat!” Placing the tray on the ground in front of the door, she walked away.

Turning the corner, she took off her hat and peaked from the side. Several seconds passed before Yumeno heard the distinct click of the door unlocking. And with that, the door opened. Inside, a mere hand peered out from the bottom of the door. She slowly took hold of the edge of the tray and pulled it inside with her. Once inside, she shut the door closed and locked it again.

Yumeno released the tight grip on her hat that she didn’t realize she had. Something about the way Angie was acting was so creepy to her. The worst part was that she didn’t understand why. She just didn’t understand Angie at all, to be honest. The most she saw of Angie now and days was her arm as she took her food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She was starting to get worried for her, but it’s not like she could help.

Yumeno fit the hat back onto her head. What was even going on in her head? Was she just being lazy? Was she depressed? Was she lonely or did she want to be left alone? She couldn’t tell at all. She just had to wish the best for her.

Yumeno’s feet tapped down the stairs back towards the kitchen to collect the next two trays to deliver. Once collected, she went back up and onto the second floor. Next on her list was Gonta.

Gonta would usually sleep in the dormitories, but Yumeno knew exactly where he was today. A couple nights ago, he enthusiastically dragged Yumeno to his research lab. He wanted to show off his baby bug eggs and tell her about how excited he was to see them hatch in a couple of days. He looked like a proud father, his eyes glimmering with pride.

Yumeno sometimes couldn’t believe how enthusiastic and pure hearted he was. The situation they were in probably wasn’t the best type of environment for a guy like him. Despite the circumstances, he seemed to be doing okay, though. Just okay.

Going through a hole in the wall behind the dragon statue and walking through the halls, she arrived at his door. Yumeno knew not to knock or call out to him. She put the trays down on the floor and slowly opened the door. She didn't want to go through the same experience she had with Shinguuji’s door. With her hands, she slid the trays into the room, closed the door, and picked the trays back up.

Gonta’s room was incredibly bright green. It was so bright green that she always squinted her eyes upon entry. Besides the walls and floor being green, he actually had simple green plants that he grew and used to feed his bugs, adding onto it.

Gonta was sitting on a foldable chair in the middle of the room. His arms were crossed together on the table, resting his head in them. On the table was a rectangular, glass container with holes on the top. Inside was filled with dirt, a stick, and a mixture of green and brown leaves inside.

Yumeno delicately placed the trays on the table. She didn’t want to wake him up, so she was trying to be quiet. As she placed it down, the plastic made the slightest clunk against the concrete table.

Gonta’s body shifted and her body froze. As his eyes fluttered open, she couldn’t help but feel upset at herself for waking him up. Slowly, he groggily started to sit upright in his chair.

“Huh...?” Gonta turned his head to look, gazing in Yumeno’s general direction. His eyes were half open and unfocused, faint tear tracks trailing down his cheeks.

“Sorry...” she gave out a soft sigh, “I didn’t mean to wake you...”

“H... H-huh??” His eyes were wide awake now. “Yumeno-san!”

He immediately stood up and out of his chair in a rush, knocking his chair back, crashing onto the ground. She immediately let go of the trays to bring her hands up to her chest protectively in surprise.

“S-sorry!!” he apologized, “Gonta didn’t know you came in! That was very rude of Gonta! Not like a gentleman at all!”

Yumeno let her shoulders relax. “I-It’s okay, I didn’t really care... Besides... you were busy taking care of your babies again, right?”

“Oh. Oh! Oh yes, Gonta was!” Gonta wipped his face a bit with his sleeve before he directed his hand towards the glass container. “Gonta was up all night to make sure they hatch properly. Gonta scratched his cheek, “It’s weird that they haven’t hatched yet. Gonta wonders if something is wrong.”

Gonta bent down to place his chair back upright as Yumeno hesitantly bent her knees down to the table’s level. She placed her hands on the edge of it as she spoke. “When are they supposed to hatch?” She gazed at the container, trying to locate the eggs.

“Well, it has been seven days. Today is the eighth. They should have hatched yesterday.” Gonta bent down and placed his hands on the edge of the table as well. He lifted a hand and pointed towards a leaf with a row of, what Yumeno assumed to be, eggs. “See? They are still there.”

“...Maybe they’re dead?” Yumeno wondered aloud absentmindedly.

He looked worriedly over at the container, “Gonta hope not. If bug friends were dead, Gonta might cry... No...” Gonta shook his head, “No... Gonta will cry.”

Yumeno’s entire body filled with dread and regret. She bit her lip, realizing what she had just said.

“N-Nnaa...” Yumeno faltered, “m-maybe they’re just... sleepy... Just tired... like... everyone else?”

“...Maybe!” Gonta responded positively with a smile, “Even still... resting for so long is bad, right? It’s not healthy at all...”

“Nnaaa... A-anyways... You said they were... leaf... leaf...” Yumeno stammered, trying to remember what Gonta had called them several nights before.

“Oh! Leaf-footed bugs! They’re a relative of stink bugs!” He placed his chin on his hands and tilted his head a bit. He gazed into the container with a faraway expression. “Gonta think the eggs are cute, but Gonta also want them to come out soon. They are even cuter then!”

That was not how Yumeno would describe them, but she didn’t want to ruin Gonta’s fun. “Right... Well, I hope they hatch soon.”

That was a blatant lie.

She would be happier if the bugs died out, but she’d never say that to him. She was never fond of bugs. Especially the bugs Gonta was taking care of currently. But she really didn’t want Gonta to get mad or start getting super emotional in front of her. Gonta was just so passionate about his bugs.

Besides, if he needed to obsess over caring for bugs to be happy, she’d be happy to let him do it. But she didn’t want to get involved, if at all possible. She'd like to be left alone.

“Mhm! Gonta as well! Gonta will be sure to introduce you to them!” He gave her an elated smile as she stood back up.

She really hoped he would forget to do it.

“Well, I better get going,” she sighed as she separated the trays from each other. Placing a plate, a rice ball, and a bowl of soup on top of the empty tray, she took the rest and started to walk to the door. Gonta quickly got up and ran ahead of her, opening the door for her to leave.

Before she did, however, she stopped and turned toward him, “You said you stayed up all night last night, right?”

“Hmm? Yes, Gonta did. Why?”

“It’s nothing... Just a little worried... Make sure you get some rest, okay?”

“Oh, um... Okay! Thank you! Gonta will be sure to do so!”

Gonta closed the door as Yumeno exited. And with that, she headed over towards Harukawa’s research lab.

Harukawa’s research lab was the floor above Gonta’s so it was an easy walk. With the staircase being right next to Gonta's research lab, it just made sense to go to him first and then head on up to Harukawa's.

The walk there was pretty boring and uneventful. But she was okay with that.

She stood in front of her door and swallowed. “Harukawa! Are you there?” Yumeno called out.

Several seconds in, she sighed dejectedly, her crestfallen face clear to see. But that quickly changed hearing the sound of the door hinges groaning open.

Harukawa peered out from behind the door. Her hair was a bit frizzy and she had Momota’s jacket draped over her shoulders like a blanket. She looked a bit tired by her facial expression alone, but she seemed okay. At least somebody actually answered her when she knocked.

“Do you need something?” Harukawa spoke softly, but there was an unmistakable firmness in her voice as she asked.

Yumeno swallowed, “N-no. It’s just... it’s breakfast.” Yumeno lifted up the tray so that Harukawa could see.

Harukawa’s face flickered in confusion, “Breakfast? Already?” She looked off to the side, staring at the shattered windows shining bright daylight. “Huh... I guess I must have stayed up too long.”

“Again...? Are you serious? I don’t understand how you guys keep doing this...” Yumeno conceded, pouting. “D-Do you guys not need sleep? How... do you expect to grow big and tall if you keep doing... this?”

“Well, that’s more something you need to be concerned about. Most of us here are pretty tall already,” Harukawa interjected.

“N-nyeh... O-okay...” Yumeno sputtered.

Harukawa reached out her hands expectantly as she continued. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going to be growing all that much, anymore. Not with the food we’ve been eating.”

Yumeno placed the tray in them, unsure what to say.

“Thanks,” Harukawa said.

“S-sure...” she sputtered. “J-just so you know... My p-puberty spell is still ongoing... Even with our food like this... I’ll grow like crazy... one day...”

“...Hm,” she said, “We’ll see. It doesn’t really matter what your height is, anyways. You shouldn’t worry too much. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Nnn... Well... I- I guess... maybe...” Yumeno took a step away from her. “Well, I guess I’ll be going now... See you...”

Yumeno waited a second or two for a response. Harukawa silently stared at her, which made her heart pump wildly.

Yumeno quickly turned and sped off, her shoes pattering against the concrete floor. Once she was a good distance away she slowed her pace. She put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath in and out.

She made her way back towards the stairs. Her heartbeat was starting to slow down back to normal. She felt a wave of relief wash over her as she walked down and made her way back to the kitchen. And then she realized.

She forgot to remind her about her magic show.

Yumeno stopped in her tracks. Her face twitched and wrinkled in frustration. She grabbed the edge of her hat with both hands and pulled it down, letting out a whine to nobody in particular.

She didn’t like talking to Harukawa. Not because Harukawa was a bad person, no. It was just hard. Whenever she talked to her, it would be like her thoughts would whirl around inside her head. It would leave her overwhelmed and their conversations stiff and awkward. It was hard to know what to say to her, she guessed.

A part of her thought about going back to remind her. But seeing her again after she had run away like that would be too awkward and embarrassing. But still, not giving her the option or reminding her could make her feel like she was being excluded, right?

Yumeno’s brain spun, trying to come up with a justification for her actions.

She lit up, _Oh. Harukawa said she didn’t sleep. So... she should rest. Like Gonta. That can work..._

Yumeno took another deep breath in, trying to stop thinking about it entirely. _Worrying is such a pain... Let’s just hurry up... I want to eat already..._ she thought to herself.

She readjusted her hat back to normal, and continued on her way back toward the kitchen. Opening the dining hall door and noticing a figure in the room, her grumpy expression quickly changed.

It was Saihara. His body was facing towards the rice balls on the table and was reaching for them. But as soon as she entered, he turned his body halfway towards her to see who it was.

His hair was slightly tousled, several strands sticking to the back of his neck. He was only wearing a crimpled dress shirt and pants with trays in hand. He didn’t look like he was trying to impress, to say the least.

“Morning,” Yumeno said as she let the door swing closed behind her. “You’re late.”

“Good morning,” he replied softly, “Haha... Yeah, I know... I stayed up for quite a while last night...”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense... you look half asleep,” she commented.

Saihara gave her a small smile, “Really? How bad do I look?”

“Nyeh...” Yumeno gave him a small smile back, “You look like a puppy that played out in the rain for far too long.”

“R-really?” he stuttered. “What gave you that impression?”

Yumeno pointed at him, “Your hair and clothes. Especially your hair.”

“O-oh... I see.” He gripped the trays he was holding and let out some awkward chuckles. Yumeno could see the faint traces of a blush appearing on his face. “I knew I should have looked in a mirror... is it that bad?”

“Nnnnn...” Yumeno hesitated. “No... your hair is just messy and too long... Besides, I don’t think anybody cares, really.... So you don’t need to worry...”

“Oh... maybe I should get it cut...”

“Maybe....”

There was awkward silence between the two. They both were pretty quiet in general, so it made sense. Well, unless they were aggravated. But the fact that it made sense why they were having this awkward silence didn’t help them feel any less awkward.

“A-anyways.” Saihara abruptly pointed towards the rice balls on the table. “Toujou-san made the food, right? It looks nice, today.” He turned around to grab two rice balls to join his soup bowls.

“...What?” Yumeno pouted. “Are you trying to say my meals weren’t?”

“Huh?” Saihara looked back at her and hastily shook his head and waved his hand, “No no! Of course not! Your meals were fine! It was a nice change of pace, really.” Saihara was as nice as usual.

“W-well, that’s good!” Yumeno bubbled, “Because I put a spell on all the food in the warehouse! If it wore off, I’d need to recast it at once!”

"Really? What was it for?" he asked.

"For all our food to taste satisfying and delicious!" she answered promptly.

He chuckled as he turned his body around to face her, “Can your magic create fresh fruit and vegetables? I’m getting a bit tired of our usual selection...”

“Nyeh... I can teleport things with my magic, but... my MP is far too low for that right now...” she sighed.

He gave an unusually forced smile “...I see,” he sighed. “I’d try and grow something myself, but I wouldn’t even know where to start on that. I’ve never even seen seeds for produce in the warehouse.”

“...Does anyone here even know how to garden?” she wondered aloud.

“I mean, Toujou-san probably knows a thing or two.” Saihara guessed, “It feels like she knows everything.”

Toujou was definitely very useful herself. She had no doubts that Toujou would know a thing or two about it.

“Yeah, but... I’m trying to avoid getting Toujou involved in anything else. If she gets more ideas, she’ll just... overwork herself...”

“Oh, I see... Knowing her, I guess that makes sense.”

Dead silence again. Ugh, this was awkward.

Yumeno folded her arms tightly against her. “E-Either way... gardening is such a pain... I rather take a nap or stare into space, instead...” she blurted.

Saihara’s expression became that of a more genuine looking smile. “Haha... still saying that, huh? I mean, if you find some seeds, it could be a fun hobby to start... since we have nothing better to do, I mean.”

“Hey... People can’t change that easily, y’know...” she smirked at him, dropping her hands back down to her side.

Saihara gave a small laugh as he started to leave, “Well, I’m gonna go back. I’m starting to feel bad, again...”

Yumeno raised her hand to wave before her brain flashed in realization, “Oh! By the way.” She pointed at him, “Magic show. Today. 11 AM. Don’t be late.”

“Oh, you’re having a magic show today?” He asked, pausing to think, “Well, I’ll try to come, but if I don’t... well... You know how it is. See you!” And with that, Saihara briskly left the dining hall, leaving Yumeno alone once more.

Yumeno gave a small smile to herself as she went into the kitchen again to take her next delivery. Despite how awkward it was to talk to him at times, Saihara was always genuine and sweet to her. He was like that with everyone. He could probably make the worst and most depressed person feel at peace just by being around him. It was a skill Yumeno envied.

Traversing past the hallways, Yumeno started to make her way to the courtyard again. Deliveries were going okay and she felt pretty good. After all, she was halfway done.

The moment she entered the main hall, however, her mood soured.

She felt herself pout and her brows furrow. “Toujou. What are you doing here?” she fumed, looking out at her.

Toujou was unplugging one of the lamp stand’s cords from an extension cord. She looked out at Yumeno with her face tinged with the tiniest amount of frustration.

“I’m fixing the lights,” Toujou replied. “I noticed they were broken this morning, so I thought I might as well fix it.”

Yumeno frowned, “You said you’d go rest after you cleaned up.”

Toujou looked away uneasily. “I did... did I?” After a couple of brief seconds of silence, she spoke once more. “Anyways, since I am already here, it might be more efficient for me to finish what I’ve already started.” Toujou gestured towards the two tiny boxes with new light bulbs right next to the lamp stands.

“Okay... if you say so...” Yumeno trailed off.

Toujou diligently went back to work. Yumeno could only hope that Toujou would go back and rest after she was done.

Knowing her, it was unlikely. But it’s not like she could stop her.

* * *

Yumeno made a grumpy face to nobody in particular.

She stood out on the courtyard in front of the dormitory, trays in hand. She was getting absolutely frustrated with her lack of progress. She was planning on finding Chabashira first. Then she'd head to the dormitories to deliver the rest. But she was finding her impossible to locate.

During the past few days, Chabashira had been in the same exact place. It was something Yumeno was grateful for. But it seems like that was only temporary. She was tempted to give up and come back to find Chabashira later. But she was a bit too stubborn to give up now after searching for so long.

Looking towards the stairs towards the lower part of the courtyard, she shrugged. She was trying to avoid it, but she guessed she had to go down there to, at least, check.

Yumeno stared down at the two bowls of soup she was holding and gave a small huff. Walking down the stairs to the lower courtyard, she watched her bowls of soup to make sure they didn’t spill.

When she reached the bottom, she gazed out at the area surrounding her with a frustrated look. She didn't see her. Yumeno was about to give up and head to the dormitory when she saw a foot from behind the miniature birdcage.

With quick short steps, Yumeno faced Chabashira. She sighed in relief. She was sleeping soundly, resting her back against the concrete and dried up greenery behind her. Her mouth was agape and she had drool dripping down from her mouth. It wasn’t the prettiest sight to see.

Yumeno couldn’t understand how Chabahsira could even stand it out here. The dust and particles in the air always affected her so badly. But Chabashira would hardly ever cough or sneeze when outside. Either way, she looked relaxed. Yumeno could only hope she was having peaceful dreams.

Unlike the attentive Gonta, Chabashira would almost always never wake up. Yumeno remembered Toujou mentioning it when she first started helping with food deliveries. She had thought she'd wake up to her voice. But no, even her voice couldn't wake her.

Yumeno left her food next to her, but far enough away just in case she moved and started to lie down. She didn’t want her to accidentally smash her face into her food in her sleepy daze. She hoped that Chabashira wouldn’t lie down still and cause the dust to kick up and get into her food.

As she left Chabashira behind, she looked back onto her remaining set of food. _Time to visit the dormitory_... she guessed.

Climbing back up wasn’t exactly pleasant. Especially not after all the stair climbing she had done several minutes prior. She wasn’t exactly what you would call fit. If she was forced to enter a running competition, she wouldn’t be able to last even seven seconds. She might not even try and walk the whole thing. Or not even show up for the contest at all.

She stomped onto the final step, relieved that she didn’t have to climb up anymore. Feeling like she didn’t have air, she stopped to take in a large breath. Big mistake.

Immediately, Yumeno turned away from the food she was holding, coughing harshly. The lingering dust and particles from the surrounding area irritated her so much. She tried to be careful with how much air she breathed at a time, trying to minimize her coughing fits. Unfortunately, she couldn’t avoid it all the time.

After she had stopped, Yumeno pressed the tray against her stomach with one hand as she used her sleeve with the other to wipe her nose and mouth. It wasn’t exactly what one might consider proper, but she couldn’t care less.

Placing her other hand back to hold the tray firmly again, Yumeno tried to hold her breath as she made her way to the dormitory. Pushing her way past the swinging door, she took a deep breath in and out. It was a bit musty, but it was much better than outside.

She looked down at her food. Some of the water and soup had spilled and now was on the tray itself as a large, combined, droplet of liquid. She furrowed her brow. Great.

She considered using her sleeve to hide her blunder. But she didn’t care about her mistake all that much to go to that extreme. Her best option was probably giving it to someone who just wouldn’t care or comment on it.

 _Hoshi_ , she instantly thought.

She made her way to Hoshi’s door. But before she could ring the door bell, she heard a door opening from behind her.

She turned to look. She could tell who it was just by the hair and clothes alone. It was Amami.

He was leaving Shirogane’s dorm room.

 _Huh..._ she thought.

The moment he opened the door fully and caught Yumeno staring at him, he froze with a surprised look on his face. Like he was a burglar just getting caught red-handed.

“Hi,” Yumeno sternly greeted.

He quickly gained his composure and waved back. “Ah... Yumeno-san. Good morning.” He shut the door behind him and walked up to her.

“Hanging out with Shirogane, I see...” she remarked, her words slow but to the point.

“Oh, haha, yeah,” he laughed awkwardly. “I know what you’re thinking. There’s nothing to it. We were just chatting.”

“Nyeh... I see... But really? You and Shirogane?”

“Is it that surprising? It doesn’t feel all that unusual.” Amami’s hand scratched the back of his head. “Would it make you more comfortable if I said that she reminds me a bit of one of my sisters?”

“Your sisters?” she paused, “...Do you have a sister complex?”

“A sister complex?” Amami laughed, “That’s a pretty absurd thing to ask.”

“Not absurd enough, now and days...” Yumeno looked at him grimly, “I mean... have you seen Shinguuji?”

“...Oh, right,” he nervously chuckled. “I’m being serious, though. We’re just friends. Shirogane-san is just very nice to talk to.”

She gave him an incredulous look, “She talks to you?”

“In bursts, yes.”

 _Figures_ , she thought to herself.

“If you’re free enough to talk to her, why don’t you get your own food? Like Saihara and Akamatsu do.”

“Oh, they get their own food?” Amami looked off towards their door and back at her again.

Yumeno didn’t know how to react, “Aren’t you supposed to be the observant one?”

“I always assumed you and Toujou-san were just being nice and getting everyone their own food. I guess that wasn’t the case now, was it?”

“No... it wasn’t... if you have the time... get your food yourself...”

“Can do!” he responded cheerfully, “How about, as an apology, I can take Shirogane-san’s food to her as well? I was planning on going back to her room after I got something from mine, anyways.”

“That’s... pretty vague... Going back to your room to get.... something, huh...?” Yumeno queried. She tilt her head down and glared at him from under her hat, “You’re not getting something... naughty, right?”

Amami gave an awkward smile back at her, “I don’t understand your fixation on this, but no, that’s not what I was going to get. I just wanted to get a book from my room. Honest.”

“O-okay. Fine.” Yumeno didn’t know what else to say. “I’ll let you go... for now... But if you do anything to her... know that you’ll be getting a horrific hex your way.”

“Haha, that’s fair. I’ll see you around, Yumeno-san.” As quickly as he left Shirogane’s room, he left for his own room.

“Oh!” Yumeno lit up in realization, her outburst causing him to stop in his tracks, “I’m having a magic show today. It’s at 11 like usual. If you and Shirogane have time, please come.”

“Oh, is it May, already?” he asked, “Well, I’ll do my best to remember! See ya!”

“Don’t forget!!” Yumeno yelled out as he entered his room and shut the door behind him.

Yumeno let out a deep breath. Amami always seemed really nice and polite to everyone. But she always wondered if there was something sleazy hiding beneath the surface. She could only hope his actions with Shirogane were pure.

Turning back around, she grasped the tray with one hand and pushed it against her stomach. Using the other free hand, she pushed the door bell to his room.

Hoshi never left his room anymore. However, he would still try and answer his door, even though sometimes he wouldn't answer. Toujou had told her to leave his food on the ground in front of his door, on those days.

The door quietly opened. A small Hoshi appeared out of the darkness. He was still in sleepwear and he looked half awake.

“Sorry," she apologized, "did I wake you?”

“Kinda," he yawned. "It’s okay. Don’t worry about it."

He looked dreadfully tired. The dark circles under his eyes accentuated his exhaustion.

“Anyways... behold. Your food. Eat up before it gets too cold,” Yumeno offered the food to him, praying that he wouldn’t comment on her mistake.

Hoshi took the plastic tray from her hands. He looked briefly at his food before he asked, “Do you have a drink?”

“Drink? You have water,” she pointed at his cup.

“No, I mean a drink. Something other than water,” he clarified.

“Nnn....” Yumeno was hesitant, “No... I don’t... Just go to the warehouse and get something...”

"...Maybe later."

"Nna... Okay..." Yumeno took that as a no.

He frowned, “...Sorry. That was a little bit greedy of me to ask, wasn't it?”

Yumeno gave him a confused look, “N-no, it wasn’t. I just don’t have a drink to give you...”

“It’s... Well, that should have been obvious just by looking at you,” he sighed. “Anyways, I feel a bit dizzy, so I'm gonna go back to bed...”

“Dizzy?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’ll figure it out, don’t worry about it. Thanks for the food.” he said as he started to shut the door.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” she exclaimed in realization. He stopped closing the door as she continued, “I’m having my magic show again at 11 AM today. It’s in the gym, like usual. Are you gonna come?”

Hoshi’s lips slightly pursed, “I’m... really not sure about today,” he trailed off. “I don’t want to get your hopes up for something I don’t know whether or not I’ll do. I might not go. Sorry.”

“...It’s fine. I understand...” Yumeno gave out a wistful sigh, “Bye...”

“Bye.”

When Hoshi shut the door, Yumeno’s brows furrowed again.

Hoshi had always been depressed, but locking himself away in his room and never leaving it? He wasn’t like that before. Yumeno guessed that the whole situation was really starting to break him down. But it’s not like there was much Yumeno could do. She didn’t know how. She only did what she could.

And with that, she was finally done. What a relief.

All she had to do now was get prepared for her event. That didn’t seem very hard to do. Most of the magic she had in mind was pretty simple stuff, anyways. While Yumeno wanted to try doing some more risky magic, she wasn't going to. Not just because it was a pain to set up in the first place. There were a whole plethora of reasons why she couldn’t. She pouted just from the thought of it.

Making her way to the kitchen one last time, she got her own tray with her own rice ball, cup of water, and miso soup bowl. Once she did that, she stepped out of the kitchen and made her way to her research lab.

Yumeno appreciated the fact that her research lab was so convenient to reach. She didn’t have to climb any stairs, which meant fewer steps for her to take. Her lab had apparently been one of those hidden research labs in the school.

It had been a day or two after they had started to investigate the academy itself. Amami had revealed to everyone that he had been given an extra Monopad. A Monopad that had a map of the building portion of the academy. There, they discovered the locations of the rest of their talent labs on the first floor. As Monokuma and the Monokubs hastily built up the rest of the academy, new floors were displayed. Along with the floor plans, there was also some important information on the Monopad as well. Like the knowledge of a hidden room and the presence of a ringleader.

When that information was brought to light, nobody knew what to think. Nobody wanted to believe they had a potential traitor within the group. With knowledge of the hidden room, the idea of a ringleader lurking about was very likely.

However, now that it had been so many months, everyone had come to believe it was another bluff. It was just a trap that Monokuma placed for Amami or anyone who had come across that room. Like Saihara and Akamatsu apparently had. It was just a trap to make them doubt each other once again.

They tried to break down the door or find a way in to confirm or deny their own suspicions, but no dice. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t find a way in.

Saihara had created two theories regarding their problem. One was that the locked room had something absolutely vital that Monokuma didn’t want them to see. Another was that the door itself was just one big fake. It was like a prop to make them think there was a ringleader in the first place. One that would hurt them if they didn’t do what Monokuma wanted. And if they were one of the students like Saihara guessed they were, betray them.

His last idea was hard to believe, though. After all, Saihara and Akamatsu had tested to see if the door had been used during their time there. And, according to them, it was. But nobody really knew what else to think. After all, if there was a ringleader, wouldn’t they have done something by now?

One question after another kept piling up. There were a mountain of questions and there were no satisfying conclusions. That mountain kept rising until the starvation incident occurred.

Once that was over they left their concerns about the ringleader behind and stopped thinking about it. Perhaps nobody wanted to think about it. It was a simple excuse to forget about it. Either way, it seemed like that action didn't actually harm them in the end. So Yumeno was okay with their reasoning.

Everyone was tired. Tired of doubting and tired of thinking. All they wanted to do was rest and do their own thing. Like normal teenagers do. And that was exactly what Yumeno planned to do. Even if their living situation was unusual, her feelings toward her craft remained the same.

The wall that had originally been blocking the pathway to her research lab had a decent sized hole in it. It wasn’t Iruma’s finest work with the drill. But it was still large enough that she could walk in and out of it. Luckily for her, she didn't have to duck like most of her classmates had to. She knew it was silly, but it was the one time Yumeno had felt somewhat prideful that she was as tall as she was. Hoshi didn’t seem to really care about it, but Ouma had laughed and made fun of everybody else who had to.

Making her way down the hall, she opened the door to her lab. Even if the lab was improperly themed to be more of a magician’s lab, she still appreciated the thought put into it.

She was also especially grateful that her lab remained quite intact. She had told everyone that she had put on a spell to protect her room from any harm. So when she entered after the whole starvation incident was over, she was rather pleased to see that it had worked.

Until she saw the gaping hole on the right side of her room next to a very expensive and very broken prop.

She secretly threw it away in the incinerator in the boiler room. She covered the hole with two heavy, dark blue, blankets. One magic-themed blanket hung inside her room and one magic-themed blanket hung outside. She then put a spell to make them blend into the wall so only she could see it’s true form.

Nobody needed to know.

The room was the tiniest bit cooler due it being connected to the outside via the hole, but Yumeno didn’t mind. The blankets stopped most of the dust and harsh particles floating in the air from coming in. It was like she was getting the benefits of a soft, cool air conditioner. So she had no complaints, other than it just looking bad.

Yumeno placed down her tray on top of the table with the purple table cloth. Taking a gas lighter, which was on the table, she walked over to two pillars in the room. She lit the area on top of her pillars aflame. With them combined, it was large enough that it could light up the general area for her to see. She was too lazy to get a ladder and replace all the old candles that had melted away on her candle chandelier. It was too much work and this was easier to clean and maintain.

She put the gas lighter back onto the table. She was feeling awfully hungry, but she had to take care of some other responsibilities first. She walked towards the left side of her room, where most of her tiny props and familiars were.

Out of everybody, she felt like she got out of the incident the luckiest. A good majority of her familiars had died in the destruction. However, two of her rabbits, three doves, five piranha, and fifteen fish had made it out alive. Injured, but alive. Only barely, though.

Yumeno took a bottle of fish food, a package of dried rabbit food, and a package of sunflower seeds from her prop shelf and headed towards the large fish tank, sitting on a large table along with the piranha tank. She sprinkled fish food down and watched as her fish swam up to eat.

After that, she went to her piranha tank and sprinkled a couple of sunflower seeds into it. Seeing one or two piranha swim quickly up to eat, she went directly to her bird and rabbit cages.

As she poured seeds and rabbit food into each separate food tray, she couldn’t help but wonder how long she was going to be able to keep this up.

Before they had got imprisoned here, she had used to feed her familiars better.  She wanted to feed them healthier things. Give them some variety. But now that their options were limited, all they could do is eat the food she knew they could eat. It felt like she was being cruel. She felt like a bad owner. But what could she do?

Putting the food back onto the shelf, she brushed her hands briefly, walking back to her table. She sat down on the wooden chair next to it, quickly giving thanks for the food. She picked up her rice ball and took a bite.

Toujou’s food was just as good as usual. Yumeno’s inadequacy when it came to feeding everybody proper meals haunted her at the back of her mind. Taking her bowl and putting it to her lips, she drank.

As she enjoyed turning the tofu in her mouth to mush, she glanced around her room. She started to make a mental list of things she wanted to bring to her event. She wasn’t planning on doing much, but even still, having a show required some preparation.

Yumeno took a gulp of water and frowned. Sometimes, she wished she didn’t have to bring so many props to display her magic to her audience. Bringing so many things was just exhausting. But using her teleportation powers would just drain her of her MP before the show even started. And she couldn’t have that happen now, could she? Her show would be over before it even began.

Taking her final bites of her rice ball, she used the rest of her miso soup to swallow it down and placed her bowl back on the tray.

Yumeno looked up at the grand looking clock next to her large shelf filled with props. 10:10 AM.

 _Good_. She had time.

Yumeno got off her chair and lay down on the floor. Taking a deep breath in and out, she just stared at the ceiling above her.

She held her trembling hands together in front of her chest and tried to relax. Even if she wasn’t planning on doing anything amazing, she still was nervous. Worry about her messing up clouded her mind, so she had to try to relax and forget about it.

The bad part about doing this was that she was able to hear her fast heart beat. The good part about doing this was that she was able to hear her heart beat slow down, which comforted her.

Shinguuji was saying how she should meditate. She felt a bit uncomfortable telling him that she already was, apparently.

What would people say if they saw her doing this? She often wondered that. Yumeno felt like people often didn’t expect much of anything out of her. So if someone did pop in on her doing this, she didn’t think people would think too much about it.

However, she still found the idea of anyone seeing her like this to be a bit embarrassing. It was her letting down her guard to try to focus on maintaining her emotions, after all. The idea of anyone seeing her in such a vulnerable position frightened her.

She was weak. Weak mentally and weak physically. She already knew that and had accepted that reality. The idea that she was so helpless frightened and worried her.

Thinking about it, it probably wasn't only her who felt this way. Every time she would look in anyone's general direction, she could see a hollow gaze from each of them.  Almost lifeless. They reminded her of her fish. It filled her with a sense of dread she couldn't get rid of. Though, it was obvious what was wrong.

Everyone didn’t have the motivation or the will to do anything. Everyone wasn’t taking care of themselves properly. They were getting more and more depressed as time went on. Including her.

She was so helpless and she didn’t know what to do about it. The only choice left for them at this point was to stay in this stagnant world for as long as possible. There wasn’t really anything else they could do.

She quickly realized she was thinking too much. She wasn’t going to be able to truly relax if she didn’t stop thinking. Closing her eyes, she tried her best to ignore the words spinning throughout her brain.

Eventually, the words did stop, along with her consciousness entirely.

* * *

Staring back at an empty world was always relaxing.

Wait... was she staring?

Were her eyes closed?

Where was she? Was she floating? Falling?

Whatever. It didn’t matter.

There was darkness all around her. The area around her felt like a large blanket, covering everything the eye could see. It was so dark that she couldn’t even see traces of herself, regardless of where she looked.

Despite this, she felt fine. In fact, she felt quite relaxed. It was quite soothing to not focus and not have to process anything. The world had so much to process in the first place, so it was calming to let that just stop. While there wasn’t anything but darkness enveloping her, her mind was still there. The only things there was the darkness and her mind. But she was okay with that. Everything was okay.

Suddenly, she saw something unusual appear from beyond the darkness. A trickle of symbols came into view. There were no symbols to be seen, but yet they were there all the same. She quickly recognized them as words, phrases, and sentences, but she couldn’t read them. She couldn’t understand them. Faint, yet distinctly there. Was it all in her mind?

She felt a sudden rush going through her head. Confused as to where this was all coming from, she quickly recognized them as the words she had been viewing. She felt the words pierce through her head, one by one. It wasn’t painful, more shocking. It felt like being flung down on a rollercoaster and instantly stopping over and over again.

She continued to experience this feeling over and over again. She felt her heart start to pound against her. She was starting to get scared. Something about these words frightened her, despite the fact that she had no idea what these words even were. Regardless, the words were cutting, cruel, negative, and eerily recognizable.

Soon, her entire mind started to be cut through by a large flow of countless rushing thoughts and words. What once was tranquil and quiet became frightening and loud. The thumping throughout her entire body felt like a drum being hit over and over again. She was quickly finding it harder and harder to breathe. It felt like something was weighing down on her head and chest, but she wasn’t being pushed down or moved. She was surrounded by nothing, helplessly, having to just take it all as it was.

Her head throbbed over and over and over again, the words cutting through her head faster. The information stabbed its way through her like a hot knife to butter. Her whole body felt like it was pounding against her, like it was responding to what she was experiencing. All the while, she couldn’t lift a finger. It was terrifying. So, so terrifying. But she couldn’t scream, regardless of how hard she wanted to. She just had to accept it all.

Even when she couldn’t recognize the words, whatever they were, they made her feel absolutely worthless. Like her entire existence didn’t matter and was corrupt to the core. Like she did absolutely nothing good. Worthless, ugly, horrible, callous, disgusting, twisted, cruel, distorted, flawed, and absolutely meaningless.

She wanted the terror to stop. She didn’t want to listen to these words anymore. She wanted it all to end. She wanted to escape. She wanted to die. She tried to cry out for help, but her mouth refused to open. She couldn’t make a single sound. Not even a single croak. So she just begged for it all to stop. She begged that someone would find her and save her. She didn’t care who it was. She just wanted someone to save her already. She plead over and over and over again, praying for it all to stop.

But her wishes didn’t mean a damn. Not in this uncaring world of her’s.

The words continued their relentless attack. They whirled and stabbed through her head with careless abandon. They ensnared and pierced through her, over and over and over and over again. Each time, getting faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and faster. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and fa—

Yumeno’s eyes flashed open.

She shot up to her elbows, heart pounding and in cold sweat. She took quick, but heavy gasps as she started to process the world around her.

Suddenly the world started to make sense again. She quickly recognized her surroundings.

She was alone. She was in her research lab. She must have fallen asleep.

Yumeno grasped her chest with one hand, faintly recalling what she had just dreamt of. She could feel her heartbeat. Sure, it wasn’t as fast as how it felt like it was, but it was still beating loudly throughout her entire body. Yumeno groaned inwardly and dropped back down onto the floor, arms crossed over her eyes and face.

_One day this has to stop, right?_

She took a deep breath in and out. She had to try and calm down. There was no way she could perform like this. She peered at the clock from underneath her arm.

Her heart dropped.

“10:57?!” she yelped.

Yumeno pushed herself up. The show started in three minutes.

_I was sleeping for that long?!_

Would anyone care if she was late? Did it matter if she didn’t exactly start on time? Her brain was whirling, trying desperately to think.

_If I’m not there... then... they might...._

“Nnaaa!!! Yumeno shrieked. “They might leave!!!!”

As fast as her hands could move, she grabbed the tray and placed in on the floor. Running to the bookcase right next to the clock, her hands indecisively waved over it, trying to pick out a couple of items she was able to use to perform. Her first instinct was to grab a deck of cards. You couldn’t go wrong with a deck of cards.

Yumeno ran back and forth from all around the room to the table. Placing her final item on the table, she grabbed all four corners of the cloth and brought them together at the top, creating a makeshift bag.

Throwing it over her shoulder with her right hand, she grabbed the largest candle snuffer lying down next to the pillars on the floor. Before she used it, she looked at her clock one last time. 10:59. Putting her tray back was going to have to wait, it seemed. Immediately, she extinguished the two pillar’s flames and put it back where she found it.

And with that, she was out the door and running.

As she ran through the hole in the wall, she couldn’t help but feel slight relief that her room was so close to the gym. Even though she had only been rushing for a couple minutes, she felt sick to her stomach.

One hole, one hallway, and two corners later, she faced the gym door. Her face broke out into a triumphant grin.

She had made it. She had actually made it.

Adrenaline was still running through her system, though. Yumeno made one last sprint towards the door. She still had to open it before she could say she made it in time, after all.

Lifting out her left hand, she pushed the door open, with an eager look on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoever can guess who will show up to Yumeno's magic show will get a mental thumbs up from me and the short-lived pride of being one of the people who "called it" before the next chapter is posted haha.
> 
> I wanted to briefly thank you guys for all the support and encouragement you guys have given me from last chapter alone. I honestly didn't expect much and I was given so much more support than I had even imagined. I was honestly blown away, really. I didn't expect that big of a response at all.
> 
> I'm a bit worried about how this chapter will be taken. Especially with the huge tonal shift that I, a hundred percent, did on purpose. But I'm hoping that, if anything, it stirs up some intrigue and that it, at least, feels fresh and an interesting take for DR fics in AO3 in general. If I can achieve that, I think I can be happy with this chapter. 
> 
> If you have the time, please leave a comment down bellow. I honestly don't mind if it's super long or not. I actually love reading long comments?? So I enjoyed the last chapter's response quite a bit. I take my feedback and the things people notice about my work quite seriously. It really helps me grow as an writer and helps me adjust my future work when I see people mentioning or not mentioning certain things so that I can look back and try and recognize why this or that worked or didn't. So if you have the time, I'd greatly appreciate it.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed! Have a nice day, guys!


	3. Pressuring the Immovable

With a loud groan and an obnoxious bang, the gymnasium door slammed open.

Upon entering, her heart instantly fluttered with glee, discerning the figure of someone inside. She didn’t take the time to think about who it was. All that mattered in that moment was making sure that, whoever they were, thought this entrance of hers was all part of the plan.

It was a very unplanned and sloppy way of entering, but she could wing it. These kinds of problems were all just another part of being in the entertainment business. It wasn’t anything particularly surprising. She’s had these incidents happen before. So it wasn’t worrying. Just annoying.

Willing her energy to somehow magically return back to her in an instant, she got into her stage persona, one that she had gotten into many, many times before. She took a step forward and threw her free hand up into the sky.

“B-behold!!” she gasped out, little to no air in her system.

With the door swinging back towards her and leaning against her frontward foot, she was quickly coming to the realization that this was going to be harder than she thought.

Attempting to look composed while trying to catch her breath was probably the worst split-second decision she could think of. Even so, now that she had already started, she was too stubborn not to commit to it.

“Pre... Prepare t… to be amazed!!! The great….” she took a large breath, “The great _mage_ … Yumeno Himiko…!! H… Has appeared before you!!”

As soon as she worded out the rest of her statement, something inside her gave up on the idea of her previous stubborn commitment.

Doubling over, she started to gasp for breath. She grasped her knee with her free hand, supporting most of her weight as she tried to steady herself. Though she had tried her hardest to keep up the act, she quickly admitted defeat. The energy in her was quickly dissipating and was getting overwhelmed by this feeling of her not caring enough to continue. It wasn’t exactly her worst entrance, but it definitely wasn’t her best.

“No smoke machine? Lame!!”

A voice yelled out from in front of her.

From upon entering, she had felt exceptionally happy. But from hearing that voice and comment alone, her mood instantly soured.

“I don’t use smoke machines….” she grouchily stated as she stood back upright, coming to realize that maybe she was in a worse mood than she had thought. “All my effects come from the magical energy surrounding me.”

“Still no smoke!” the person quipped with careless abandon, either  oblivious to her sudden change in mood or couldn’t care less.

She was going to make a comment about her MP being saved up for the show itself, but the person spoke before she could.

“Anyways, I’m glad you’re here! I was suuuuper worried you weren’t gonna show, y’know??”

“Of course…” she uttered under her breath, somewhat hoping that they missed her tone of disappointment and frustration.

Shifting her bag uncomfortably, she was finding it harder and harder to stop herself from sounding disappointed. It wasn’t her intention and she wasn’t exactly looking to hurt their feelings, but she couldn’t hide it.

Unfortunately for her, Ouma took it badly.

In an instant, tears sprung up from his eyes. “Ehh??” Yumeno-chan, are you disappointed? I never realized you hated me that much!”

Ouma was sitting in the middle of the gymnasium, curled up on a foldable chair, which she had assumed he had gotten from the foldable chair cart. The one that had been placed by the stage for her and her audience’s usage. He, himself, was facing towards her, the tips of his feet barely hanging off the seat edge’s side. The chair, however, was facing towards the folded plastic table, red sheet, and cape next to the wall on Yumeno’s right.

She didn’t know how long Ouma had been there, but she was grateful that all of her stuff seemed to be there, untouched and unbothered.

“No… I don’t _hate_ you.” She wanted to make that as clear as possible to him. But by the looks of his face, he didn’t seem convinced. “I just….” she gave a sigh, “I expected at least one of the people I invited to come…”

“Invited?” That seemed to set Ouma off even more. He sniffed, his eyes turning wide and his bottom lip starting to tremble, distraught plastered clear as day on his face. “Are you saying I wasn’t invited?”

“Nyeh… No…” Yumeno took a couple steps forward, letting the door swing shut behind her.  “The show is open to everyone but… Technically… I didn’t invite you _personally_ … so….”

Ouma smiled as brilliantly as the sun. “Wow you’re harsh! You’re gonna make me cry, y’know?”

She sighed, “Even if you did, it’d probably be fake, anyways…”

Yumeno couldn’t understand how Ouma could change his emotions as quickly as flipping a light switch. He made it look incredibly easy to do so, too. Even still, it was all the more reason to not trust him and what he said, even though she admittedly found herself trusting and falling for almost every single one of his acts.

Almost as if he was affirming her thoughts, he snickered at her. “Nishishi! Probably! I mean, I am a liar after all!” he said as he dropped his feet down onto the floor in front of him.

Even though he had stopped laughing at her at this point, she could tell that he was still laughing internally with his eyes alone.

“Anyways, I’m relieved you’re here. Can we hurry up and get this thing started already?”

She raised a brow at his request. “Nyeh? Why?”

Lightly swaying back and forth, he spoke carefree and unabashedly, “Well, I kinda wanted to get this whole childish thing done and over with ASAP, if you get my drift.”

She lowered her head slightly, “Childish?” she uttered.

“Um, yeah?” Ouma answered back. “Magic shows are only for loser children and whiny babies, right? That’s why kids go to your shows!”

She pouted. “…. You do know that adults came to my shows all the time, right?”

“As supervision, yeah!”

Despite the inaccuracy of his statements, logic, and reasoning, it still struck a nerve with her. Especially since she did know a good majority of her audience back in the day fell back into the category that he described.

She glared at him, secretly hoping he’d realize how mad she was getting. But he just looked on at her with childish obliviousness, nothing on his face giving any sign of remorse, sympathy, or care towards how she was feeling.

“… If you don’t want to be here, you can just leave,” she quickly found herself saying.

A wave of dejection washed over his entire being. He gave a little sigh. “If I could, I would. But… I can’t. Hostage of circumstance, y’know?”

Before she could ask for any sort of clarification, Ouma pushed his feet against the wooden floor to whirl him to the other side of his chair. He took out his hand and visibly pat something out of Yumeno’s view. “Isn’t that right, little buddy?” he cooed.

Taking more notice at what was next to him, Yumeno could see the wheels of a trolley, along with something black sticking out, unrecognizable from the position she was in. Curiosity piqued, she tilt her body to the side, trying to see what Ouma was patting with such love and affection.

Upon realization, her body stiffened, her face twisting into that of a confused, horrified grimace.

“What’s _he_ doing here?”

Sitting on top of the trolley was Kiibo.

Taking a couple absentminded steps forward, she started to make him out a lot better next to Ouma, who was still patting and petting his head with an affectionate gaze.

Kiibo was leaning against the back of the cart, facing towards the basketball net the same way Ouma’s chair was. Despite facing that direction, he wasn’t looking at anything. His eyes weren’t even there to use. The eye sockets themselves were dark, blank, almost as if they were empty.

His hands and legs were loosely laid out and resting on the trolley. From the gap between his waist and the cart’s back, it looked like Kiibo was going to eventually slide down and fall. But she knew that wouldn’t happen. In the state he was in, it was rather hard for him to move, his joints surprisingly hard to bend and twist at times. Plus, he was quite heavy.

Kiibo’s hair looked to be ruffled. Quite more than usual. Though Yumeno assumed it was probably from Ouma’s continuous patting and playing of his hair. It looked considerably messy and unmaintained, even without the prominent ahoge that always stood out like a sore thumb. Despite his hair looking the way it did, the rest of him still seemed the same as it always had been.

With an innocent look on his face, Ouma turned towards her and thumbed at Kiibo. “Him?”

She stared at him incredulously.  “Who… Who else?”

“Ah. Yeah,” he gave a small sigh before giving her a defeatist smile.  “Long story short, Kiiboy over here has been jabbering for days about how he reeeeeally wanted to see your show. But poor, disabled Kiiboy over here couldn’t move…. So, as his bestie, I’m obliged to help and come with!”

Unintentionally rolling her eyes, she started to walk towards the wall, her expression starting to return back to her normal, blank one. “Yeah right…”

She couldn’t help but wonder why Ouma was being so obviously difficult. They were the only people in the room. But those thoughts quickly went away as she continued to process the rest of his words.

“Wait...” she stopped at the wall, dropping her bag against it, and turned her head towards him with a perplexed look, “Bestie?”

Ouma’s eyes widened, his hand swiftly placed upon his mouth. “Whoops!! Did that slip out???”

Yumeno simply stared at him as he continued with a sigh, an apprehensive look dawning upon his face.

“Gosh, I’m such a ditz… It was supposed to be a secret… But too late for that, I guess!!” With a smile, he put his hand on Kiibo’s head. “Anyways, yeah! Kiiboy and I are BFFs, now!”

Yumeno scrunched up her eyes at him. “That’s a horrible joke…”

Leaning towards her with a frustrated look, he piped up in sharp surprise, “A joke? Seriously?? You don’t believe me? I’m telling the truth!! We do all sorts of friendly things together!” Ouma plastered a large friendly smile on his face as he started to playfully list things off with his fingers, “I mean, we play games together, listen to music together, tease each other, Eskimo kiss, fool around under the sheets–”

Yumeno raised a hand at him, giving a disgusted look, “No… Stop… I don’t want to hear it…”

Ouma looked bewildered at her comment, but that quickly turned into an expression of offense. “Wow, Yumeno-chan! You’re so rude! Are you kink shaming me?!”

Yumeno could only describe her emotions following that as utterly flabbergasted.

“Nyeh!? A-Are you seriously….!?” She responded in an instant, the words flying out of her mouth in reckless abandon. “That’s disgusting!! How dare you! How dare you play around with Kiibo’s corpse like that!!”

“He’s dead!! He doesn’t care!” Ouma stubbornly and vigorously countered, his fists gripped and raised to his chest and his face plastered with stubborn resolution. “People love vampires, right?! This is no different!!”

She pulled her hat down, covering her ears. “Nnaaaaaaa… please tell me it’s a lie already… I think I’m going to be sick…”

Ouma smiled.

“Well, of course it’s a lie. Just use some logic!” he sung with a cheery expression. “There’s no way you can have a meaningful relationship with scrap metal!”

“That’s…” she started, peaking out of her hat hesitantly, “a pretty robophobic thing to say to your boyfriend…”

Ouma folded his arms and frowned, “He’s not my boyfriend! We’re besties! Besties!! Get it right already, geez!” He gave a small, frustrated huff, but his expression quickly changed back into that of a smile. “Anyways, let’s get started already! I wanna see what you’ve got, so hurry! Hurry!”

She could feel her mouth turn into that of a pout. “You’re being pretty impatient…” she grumbled slowly, “impatient for someone who says they don’t want to see my show…”

He frowned at her, “Are you trying to torture me, Yumeno-chan? Stop asking me questions and just start already, would you??  Chop-chop! Time is money!”

Giving him a frustrated frown, she let out a sigh. “Ugh, I don’t understand you at all… Talking to you is impossible...”

“Is it?” Ouma hummed. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure what we’re doing now would qualify as talking, wouldn’t you say?”

She turned to grab the table leaning against the wall. “You’re being… pretty difficult, you know that? You should really work on that,” Yumeno cautioned.

“Difficult? Of course! I always play on the hardest difficulty!"

“Nnnn… yeah, you should work on that, alright….”

Ouma didn’t respond to her comment. With a huff she dragged the table across the floor, the friction between the ground and the table making a long scraping noise, grating to the ear.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at where the table met the ground, clear distaste apparent on his face. “That’s one way to be lazy,” he heedlessly spoke.

Yumeno continued to drag it, much to his displeasure, until the table was in front of him. “I can’t lift it by myself… it’s too heavy. And trying would just be a pain…  Also, I can’t use my magic to help me. I need to save up my MP for my performance…”

“Nishishi. You’re still talking like that,” Ouma giggled, staring amusedly at her. “And here I was, thinking you actually might’ve had some character development.”

Her eyes slightly squint in confusion. “Character development…? What? No…? I haven’t changed…”

Ouma tilted his head to the side, “Really? You seem different, though!” Leaning forward, he yelled, “Hey hey! Tell me why! I’m really curious!”

With narrow eyes, she bent down to pull out the legs from underneath. “If anybody needs character development here… it’s you,” she countered.

Just looking at the legs for the briefest of seconds, she didn’t have any idea what to do. All she saw was a tiny steel ring. She assumed it had something to do with keeping the table up. She didn’t really know for sure, though. Playing around with it for a bit, she pushed the ring slightly up and down, deciding to just do that until she figured it out.

“Don’t just ignore me!” Ouma nagged. “You’re different! I just know it! Do you want me to start making false assumptions about you? You should just tell me so we can be on the same page, already!”

“Since when were we in the same book?” Yumeno quipped, looking up at him with a frustrated look on her face. She looked back down at the legs of the table again. While she was frustrated with how he was talking to her, she was more frustrated with the table.

Ouma gave her a challenging look. “Hey. There’s only room for one sass master, in town.”

_What a pain…_

She sighed again, which she found was becoming a common occurrence when talking to him. “Whatever… I don’t want that position, anyways…”

“Good,” he stuck his nose slightly in the air. “Like I said, there’s only room for one.”

Yumeno said nothing. Talking to Ouma was just slowing her down. Lifting up the table, she adjusted it to stand on its legs. Smiling proudly, she looked down at the plastic, foldable table standing proudly before her.

With it disappearing as soon as one leg gave way.

Yelping, she raised her hands to her chest in surprise with Ouma visibly flinching the moment the table came crashing onto the ground.

Glaring at the table, she walked over to the fallen side, bending down to lift and pull the legs back out. The moment she lifted the side that fell, the other side came crashing down as well, causing her to tense up and yelp in surprise once more.

She found herself switching her gaze towards Ouma. Big mistake. A massive grin stretched across his face, getting wider by the second. She whisked her head back towards the table in an instant, frowning. Was he finding amusement in all of this?

“You’re pretty bad at this,” he said. “I thought you were supposed to be a professional?”

Yumeno could only look at him with an annoyed look. She didn’t know what to tell him that didn’t sound terrible. “I… may be a professional, but… I don’t usually do the setting up myself. Others just tend to help me without me even asking… so…”

“So honest! Boring, but admirable!” he praised ever so slightly. “If only there was somebody who could help you, huh? Haha! You should ask Kiiboy! He loves to help people!” He pat Kiibo on the head. “Right, Kiiboy??”

She turned her head back towards the table, brows furrowed. Yumeno adjusted the steel rings again and put the table back up.

And watched it crash back down.

Yumeno puffed out her cheeks and went back down to fix it and picked it back up.

It crashed down.

She let out a groan as she picked it back up again.

The leg gave way.

And again.

Topple.

And again.

Crash.

And again.

Another crash.

“NNNAAA!! What am I doing wrong?!?!” she yelled, grabbing her head and hair in frustration.

Trying to figure out the reason why what she was doing wasn’t working, she bent back down to try and fix it once more. Getting up and down and lifting the table up over and over again was getting exhausting. She let out a low groan as she turned the table to the side, her eyes darting back and forth at both of the legs.

“Okay. This is getting sad.”

She looked upward towards the voice.

Ouma was staring at her with an annoyed expression, pointing with his index finger at the table. “You just have to lock it in place, right?”

Yumeno’s eyes glanced down at the table. “Yeah… I guess… but… it’s not locking,” she exasperated.

“Lemme see,” he said as he pushed himself off of his chair. He walked over to where she was, putting a hand to his chin and gazed at the steel ring that Yumeno was pushing into place. “Oh. That’s your problem right there.”

She looked at him with a confused look. “What is?”

He let go of his chin and pointed at the steel ring, “You’re not pushing it all the way.”

“What? No? I am,” she said.

“No, you’re not. You’re just placing it there. It’s not actually stopping anything,” he explained. He continued with a couple quick gestures of the hand. “It’s supposed to be a lock, so it needs to be firmly in place so that the table legs won’t be able to fold inwards. Just push it further.”

Ouma turned on his heels and walked back to his chair. Plopping back on the chair, he crossed his legs and arms, looking at her with a neutral expression on his face, as Yumeno pushed the ring further than she had been doing and returned the table back to its standing position.

Hesitantly, she let go of it, breath bated.  Her hands lingered down under in case it fell back down. After a couple of seconds of inactivity, she released her breath, giving out a small, triumphant smile, letting her hands fall to her side.

And with that, there was expeditious clapping.

Her head rose to look.

Ouma was leaning forward and excessively clapping in applause, his feet placed firmly on the ground in front of him, looking overwhelmingly ecstatic.

“Wow!!! I can’t believe it!!! The table is standing!!!” he cheered.

Yumeno looked down at him in displeasure. _Did he help me just to make fun of me faster??_ she found herself wondering.

“…Do you have to be so rude about it?” she asked aloud.

“I’m being serious!” he asserted. “A table standing upright? I never expected that! I just witnessed a magical miracle from the Super High School Level Magician herself! Even if you struggled a bit, you’re no disappointment!”

She turned back, walking towards the wall and picked up the red tablecloth she was going to use, mumbling, “Nnaa... I’m a mage… not a magician.”

“Mage? Magician? That doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve been converted! Magic really is real!!” He spoke, his fists clenched and his eyes glistening with excitement and wonder.

The fact that Ouma was clearly lying caused her to sulk internally. Even still, his performance was quite good. Yumeno wondered how he could be this good of an actor at the drop of a hat.

She frowned as she unfolded the tablecloth. “Of course magic is real.” She lifted it and started to spread it flatly across the table, “but I didn’t use magic to get the table up. I’m saving up my MP, ‘member?”

“Eh?” Ouma looked stupefied, “B-but… what did I… just witness, then???”

She gave out a large, drawn out sigh.

Yumeno placed both hands firmly onto the table as she stared at him, “Can we stop talking about this? Please.”

Quickly, his expression changed once more. “Sure!” he cheerily grinned. “If that wasn’t real magic, then I guess you’re just going to have to show me it, right?”

“I guess,” Yumeno shrugged as she went back towards the wall and came back with a pack of cards. “You’re going to have to wait until everybody else shows up, though.”

As expected, he whined. “Whaaat? We have to wait for everybody? Why do Kiiboy and I have to be punished for everybody else’s tardiness? Let’s just start already.”

Yumeno dropped her cards onto the table and gave a quick glance around the room, looking at the chair cart where Ouma had gotten his chair from. Her feet tapped her way over there and she took one down.

“…We’ll wait at least ten more minutes. They’re probably just late,” she resolved.

She lackadaisically brought it back to her table. The metal chair groaning as she opened it, she placed it down and sat, laying back comfortably in it.

“But it’s already been ten minutes.” He joined her, lying back in his own seat, “They probably just forgot.”

She looked at the clock on the wall in front of her. Annoyingly, Ouma was right. It already had been ten minutes ever since she had entered.

“I reminded most of them this morning. At least one more person has to come.” She reassured, folding her arms in front of her.

Ouma folded his arms as well as crossed his leg over the other. “You have quite a lot of faith in them. Despite them being disappointments who think doors that look locked actually are without even checking.”

“When wa–” Yumeno frowned in realization, “Hey, we were half asleep…”

“Lousy excuse!!” he exclaimed. Clearly that kind of reasoning wasn’t going to fly with him. “I was so disappointed in everyone, really. Especially Momota-chan and Akamatsu-chan. I mean, it was their idea, right? How could they let such an obvious flaw in their plan slip through their minds?” Ouma made a pushing gesture as he continued. “All you have to do is try to push the door open and you’d see the chains were utterly useless. They were just as useless and pointless as the classroom window’s barbed wire!”

Yumeno briefly pressed her lips together, not liking his train of thought. “Didn’t they decide to lock the doors in the middle of the night…? On impulse? They probably were just too tired to think properly…”

“Excuses, excuses,” he waved his hand dismissively at her. “They could have placed the hooks onto the doors instead of the frame. They could have glued the inside of the doors. All of it was just really, r _eally_ stupid,” he said, placing emphasis on his words.

 “Nnaa… at least they tried…” she grumbled. “I don’t see you trying to do anything.”

“Hey, I did my part by revealing their stupidity in the most obvious and straightforward way.” He explained matter-of-factly. “There’s a reason why I’m the Super High School Level Supreme Leader and not the Super High School Level Lackey.”

With a huff, she muttered, “…You probably weren’t even trying to help. You were just trying to make us feel stupid, right?”

Ouma gave a devious grin, hearing her through her mumbles, “Nishishi! Did I get caught? Yeah, I just wanted to see the look on everyone’s dumb faces when they realized their mistake! It was so worth it, too.”

Yumeno sighed, “Whatever…”

She lay the side of her head on the table in front of her, cheek squished. She didn’t bother talking to him anymore. Reaching upwards, she readjusted her hat so that it wouldn’t fall off and closed her eyes.

And so, they waited.

And they waited.

And they waited.

Yumeno looked at the clock. Eleven fifteen. Five minutes left to go.

So, they continued to wait.

And wait.

And waited some more.

Yumeno looked over at the clock again. It was eleven twenty-five. Huh. Five minutes overtime. She gazed out at the door. When were they going to come?

From underneath her hat, she indifferently gazed over at Ouma, who was sitting back comfortably. His ankle was resting on the other leg’s knee and his arm was hanging over the back of his chair. His eyes were intently looking and digging at his other hand’s short nails, lips pressed together, forming a fine line.

It was weird to see Ouma like this. In fact, it was kind of creepy.

He was usually bursting with energy, so to see him like this made her feel odd. She had expected that he would have been complaining nonstop at her, taking out his seemingly endless supply of energy out on her.

But no. Here he was, sitting quietly.

Ouma glanced her way, making eye contact with her. She could feel herself slightly freeze up. Did he just realize she was staring at him? With a flick of his nails, he had a smirk on his face once more.

“What time is it?” he asked.

Yumeno’s brow furrowed. Putting a hand to the table, she lifted herself up, adjusting her hat back to its normal position on her head.

“It doesn’t matter…” Yumeno replied, standing up and pushing her chair to the side. “Let’s just start… they can just come in mid-show…”

And with a happy cheer from Ouma, Yumeno took out her deck of cards from the packaging.

* * *

The magic show went along smoothly. No major accidents or hiccups. Just occasional, minor annoyances every now and then.  The show in its entirety went better than Yumeno thought it would, specifically with Ouma and a silent Kiibo as her audience.

Yumeno had expected him to be standing up and down throughout, questioning each and every magic trick she preformed or asking to inspect her materials, but he didn’t. He just clapped and cheered like any other normal audience member would. Only, he would look overly ecstatic, almost to an obnoxious, unrealistic degree.

Even though she was proud of her work, she didn’t understand how Ouma could seem so impressed. Especially for this show. Nothing she was showing was overly impressive deserving of the reactions he was giving. For example, when she had simply floated a card in the air, he would act like he had seen an actual god float down right in front of him. Either way, she was grateful that he wasn’t causing trouble or just being dead silent throughout.

At the end of the show, Yumeno gave a drawn-out bow as Ouma rapidly applauded.

“Amazing, Yumeno-chan!” he burst. “Simply and truly amazing! I’ve never seen anything like that!”

She looked back up at him, “Nyeh? Really? Did you really like it?”

“Yup! Of course! You must’ve worked really hard to learn all of that!” he praised.

 _Huh_. Yumeno grabbed the rim of her hat, mindlessly rubbing her index finger and her thumb together on the cloth in thought.

“Even Kiiboy enjoyed it! Isn’t that right, buddy??” Ouma said as he lowered his head and arm towards a button on Kiibo’s waist.

When Kiibo’s flashlight function sprung to life, Yumeno spontaneously yelped. She raised her hands instantaneously, trying to block the intense light from shining directly into her eyes.  All the while, he cheekily smiled at her, pressing the button over and over again. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off.

 “Nnna… stop… I get it...” Yumeno whined irritably, just waiting for the flashing to be over.

And with that, the flashing stopped. Yumeno lowered her hands back down and Ouma looked over at her, a devious smirk plastered on his face.

 _Just when you were getting slightly more tolerable, too…_ she thought to herself.

“Anyways…” She lifted the red tablecloth by the corners. “That’s it… so…” she trailed off, starting to roll it into a ball. She was too lazy to fold it properly.

As she rolled, she absentmindedly looked at the door. Clearly this got Ouma’s attention as he turned his head to look at the door with her.

“It’s a shame nobody else came. I thought you said you invited them!”

“I did…” she murmured.

“Wonder why, then!”

“They…” her grip on the ball in her hands tightened, “They probably all just got really busy at the last minute… or just forgot…”

With an awkward pause in between them, he excitedly whisked his head towards her. “Huuuh? Reeeeeally? Too bad for them, huh? That thing you did with you escaping those cuffs was so cool! How’d you do it, huh? Huh??”

“… trade secret,” she stated as she tossed the ball at the wall, with it hitting and falling to the ground with a satisfying swish.

“What?? You’re no fun, Yumeno-chan.” Ouma huffed, “C’mon, don’t be such a stick in the mud! Tell me at least a little!”

“Nnn… no.” she said in a definitive tone. “Like I said, it’s a trade secret… Only me, my master, and my familiars know… so…”

Ouma gave a disappointed sigh, “Aww… you’re no fun…” He gave her a curious look, “Wait, would I be able to figure it out if I just watched you hard enough?”

Instantly, her heart filled with dread.

“You’re not a mage… so… either way, that’d be impossible. … Also… I’d… I’d prefer if you don’t. Just… don’t think too hard about it…”

Ouma snickered, “Well regardless, I’ll be watching extra closely from now on! I’m the type of person who can’t handle not knowing things, yeah? Like juicy gossip! I hate not knowing the latest juicy gossip.” He smiled, “So! When’s your next show?”

She gave him a confused look. “You don’t know? …but how did you even know I was having a show today if you didn’t know?”

“Obviously, my bestie told me. I mean, who else do I talk to?”

Ouma answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Yumeno decided not to probe, just to avoid getting into another word debate on the truth of the matter.

“Well, I have shows on the first of every month at eleven…”

Ouma cocked his head to the side. “Really? That often?”

“Often? No… this is nothing…” she trailed off, mumbling.

“You kidding me? That’s _pretty_ frequent!”

Yumeno gave him a stare, almost trying to affirm her answer to him. “Nyeh…. No, it’s not… Back when the world wasn’t destroyed, I did a lot more shows than this…” she trailed off, the weight of the past weighing heavy down upon her. Talking about the past wasn’t something she really liked to do.

“Well, yeah, if you’re thinking like that, it’s not much, he conceded, “But we’re talking about performing for the same audience over and over again! I mean, isn’t that, just, unwise?”

“Nyeh?” she perked up from his words curiously. “How?”

“Ehh? Have you not realized it, yet??” He looked at her worryingly before giving a happy expression again. “Or are you just that confident in your skills as a magician?”

“Mage,” she instantly corrected. “I still don’t understand…”

Ouma put a finger to the lower corner of his mouth, “Well, you need time to invent new tricks, right? How many new and inventive tricks can you make and perform within the span of a month?”

Her brows furrowed. “They’re not tricks…”

A fussy look protruded from his face. “You’re not answering my questions! How many can you make??”

Yumeno paused in thought, taking some serious time to think before answering. “Nnnn… I can prepare… maybe… one or two spells?  If I feel motivated enough to experiment and practice… I mean…”

His eyes widened. “One or two? _Really?_ Wow! Yumeno-chan, that’s _way_ worse than I thought!”

Yumeno gripped the hem of her jacket with her fingers and squintted her eyes at him, “… Can you just get to your point already?”

With a little sway of his head, he spoke again. “The point is, that you’re not going to be able to create a whole bunch of new tricks for the magic shows you perform, right?”

“So…?”

Ouma placed his elbow on his knees and rested his chin on his palm. “Eventually, you’re going to have to repeat tricks, right? And once that happens, your magic won’t feel amazing or special because your audience has already seen it before. It’ll just feel bland and boring.” Ouma tilted his head at her. “That’s pretty bad for someone in your field, right?”

Yumeno didn’t say anything.

She felt her lips want to purse up, but she tried to will it away.

Of course, she had thought about that. She had been thinking about it for the longest time. But she had been trying to ignore it. She didn’t want to think about it. That kind of thought was just too… too…

“Is that thought painful?” he asked.

She could feel the grip on her jacket become tighter.

Of course it was painful. The idea of her work suddenly becoming uninteresting and boring for her audience scared her.

Magic was all she had, after all.

“No… That… won’t happen,” she hesitated, her grip still tight. “After all… the possibilities for those who wield magic are endless…”

 “What a horrible lie!” he declared as he lifted his head up and sat back upright, his hands gripping the side of the chair in-between his legs.

“I’m not lying…” Yumeno insisted.

“Nishishi! You’re totally lying! You can’t lie to a liar like me!” he surmised. He leaned forward towards her and pointed at himself with his thumb. “My power can rival that of any lie detector, y’know?”

Yumeno looked peculiarly at him as she tugged at her sleeves. “Yeah right… There’s no way you’d be able to tell… There’s no proof, so…”

He gave a small smirk and laughed. “Haha! You don’t need to feel too bad about it!” he waved his hand dismissively. “I mean, you _had_ to start feeling this way eventually! It was inevitable, really!”

She inquisitively stared. “Inevitable?”

“Of course!” he stressed as he gave her a look. “I mean, who do you think we are, anyways?”

Yumeno hesitated. “Nyeh… People?”

“Not what! _Who!_ ”

“Nnnn… uh…” she murmured to herself. “…teenagers?”

He squint his eyes at her.

Flinging out his arms with an incredulous look, he exclaimed, “We’re Super High School Level Students, Yumeno-chan!” He emphasized that heavily, like he was trying to express to her that it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Oh… Yeah… I guess we are…” Yumeno felt her face start to flush from embarrassment, his implied disappointment reaching her. But before it became apparently obvious, a question rose from her mind. “Wait… but… why would that…? That…”

“Easy answer,” Ouma interrupted, almost as if he knew what she was going to ask. He raised his index finger and smiled. “Obligation.”

She gave him a confused look.

Ouma either didn't seem bothered by this or was too busy in his own world, gazing out at Kiibo's messed-up hair. With a huff, he silently started to fix it with one hand.

Yumeno staring at him disapprovingly. The way he casually and indifferently handled him just creeped her out. She reached out towards the chair she had pushed off to the side at the start of her performance and pulled it towards her. As she sat down, he continued to speak.

“As Super High School Level Students, don’t you think that we all had strong obligations and goals that we wanted to fulfill in the outside world? Before it was destroyed by whatever disaster that happened, I mean.”

Yumeno paused in thought. “Nnaa… probably…” she said as Ouma placed the final out of place strand of hair back to where it should be. “I mean, that’s why a lot of us wanted to get out, right? We had a lot more we wanted to do… I’m sure…”

Ouma’s eyes lit up. He pound his palm against Kiibo’s head, effectively ruining his finished work up until that point, as he pointed at her with his other hand, a happy expression as clear as day on his face.

“Yup! You may be slow, but you don’t seem like a lost cause!”

She had to stop herself from making a frustrated face at him.

“So… you’re saying it was only inevitable for me to start feeling worried about my magic becoming boring and useless…” she gripped the hem of her skirt, “Because I’m a Super High School Level Student?”

Apparent shock appeared on his face. “Eh?! Yumeno-chan! I thought you said the idea didn’t hurt you at all??”

Yumeno froze.

“N…Nna…” she sputtered. Her shoulders went tense as she started to fidget with her skirt, desperately trying to find something to say and coming up empty.

He obnoxiously giggled. “Nishishi! You’ve got a long way to go before you can make a convincing enough lie to fool anyone. Especially me!” He turned his body back towards Kiibo to re-tidy the hair he had just ruined using both of his hands. “Anyways, you’re right, but you’re still missing something.”

“M-missing something?” Yumeno asked. “What… am I missing?”

“The fact that you’re stuck here.”

Yumeno felt like something had been jabbed inside her. The power of his words had struck her deeply, even though she was making an attempt to hide this truth.

As he continued to work intently on Kiibo’s hair, Yumeno mulled over his words in her head. As much as he was a liar, his words rung true, deep in her heart, even though he didn’t seem bothered by such a thing. He just continued working as she continued to think, considering the idea that he had either already accepted this fact or he just didn’t care.

“I mean… I guess so,” she tentatively agreed. “It’d be much easier for a murder to happen with us… rather than with…” she paused, “I don’t know… a bunch of kids who don’t really have much else to do…”

He beamed at her. “Yup! Exactly! Y’see, Yumeno-chan, this is exactly why you shouldn’t be foolish and base your entire life off of your talent! You can still save yourself if you stop now!” he sung playfully.

Yumeno looked toward the door. “Do you think that’s the reason why everyone has been acting so… off?”

“Off?” Ouma questioned. “What do you mean?”

She looked down at her feet, regret for saying anything itching at the back of her mind. Even so, she continued to heedlessly spoke, almost feeling like she couldn’t keep it inside her.

She swallowed, “I-it’s just… I don’t think everyone is doing okay… It feels like everyone has been getting… more and more depressed, lately…”

Ouma stopped messing with Kiibo’s hair and looked curiously at her. “Depressed? What makes you think that?”

“W-well…” Yumeno stuttered as Ouma turned himself to face her.

She could feel a wave of emotion start to stir throughout her body.  So she stopped. She didn’t say anything, awkward silence blanketing over the two, extremely hesitant in saying any more.

“You’re not gonna to say it?”

Yumeno looked up at him, staring intently at her. His elbow was resting on his knee with his chin being held up by his hand, fingers slightly covering his mouth. “C’mon, you gotta have a reason to think that way, right? So? What is it?”

“It’s…” she stopped.

There was more awkward silence.

Yumeno’s eyes flickered between looking at the floor and looking at Ouma’s eyes. He was still gazing at her silently, like he was waiting and urging her to continue. As he continued to stare, she felt the immense pressure to continue speaking. Like this awkward silence wouldn’t let up unless she spoke. Ouma was clearly not about to speak before she continued.

She loosely clasped her hands together and let them rest on her lap as the weird, uncomfortable feelings she felt stirred throughout her chest and stomach.

Slowly opening her mouth, her mind still crying out at her to stop, she spoke. “W-Well… F-For one thing… Toujou hasn’t been doing well…”

“What? Mom?” He asked curiously, “What happened?”

“Nmm…” Yumeno hesitated, the pressure still not letting up, and pointed at him, “D-Don’t tell her I told you this, okay?? If you think about doing it, I’ll curse your lips with a zipper hex!”

Yumeno saw his lips slightly perk up as she continued. “So… three nights ago… at one in the morning, I remembered I forgot to take a bath…”

“You forgot?” Ouma asked curiously.

“It… yeah I guess it… it… I just forgot, I guess…” Yumeno admitted, fumbling over her words all the way.

“Really?” he smiled smugly at her. “What were you even doing?”

 “I was…” Yumeno swallowed, “staring at my dorm wall…”

 He blinked, “…. Staring.”

“Yeah…”

“Really? How long?”

“Nmm… F-for three hours….”

Ouma burst out in obstreperous laughter.

Yumeno grasped her hat and pulled it down, a hard blush appearing on her face. She let out a flustered whine as Ouma grasped at his stomach, still cackling.

“Nnaaaa!! St-stop laughing!!” she yelled, releasing her grip of her hat and balling her hands into fists. “Let me tell my story!!!”

There was a clear attempt to try and stifle his laughter as he continued to laugh. “Sorry, Yumeno-chan! My impression of you is slowly getting worse and worse as we speak!”

“Does it look like I care?!”

“Stop blushing and maybe I’ll believe that!”

“I-I’m trying to be serious, here!!” she stressed as she continued. “A-anyways… Taking baths have always been kind of a pain… I thought about being lazy and not doing it. But I felt so disgusting that I thought I probably should… So… anyways… I went down to the boiler room to fill up my buckets, right? And there… I saw Toujou.”

“Oooh! A late-night rendezvous, huh?” he said with a cheeky smile. “How romantic!”

Yumeno took hold of her knees. “No… It was purely a coincidence…”

“Right. Right. So? What’s so unusual about that?”

“Well… She…” Yumeno looked towards the floor and pursed her lips, “She… S-She...”

Ouma gave her a slightly annoyed stare. “She what?” he asked.

Yumeno’s grasp tightened.  “S-She was passed out.”

The moment she said it, weird, uncomfortable feelings started to whirl throughout her entire body, her hands starting to tremble. Her toes curled from inside her boots as she clenched her teeth, trying to keep a neutral expression towards him.

A surprised look dawned upon his face. “Huh?? Really?? This is Mom we’re talking about here, right??” His body leaned more towards her. “How did that happen?”

“I asked what had happened but…” Yumeno continued, recalling the event and trying to explain it to Ouma to the best of her ability. “…Well… she had fainted, apparently. She was filling up those water cooler bottles for those water dispensers… you know… in the kitchen...? But she passed out before she finished.” Yumeno grasped the bottom of her vest, “I was really scared… I thought she had a heart attack or something… Luckily, it wasn’t that…”

“Then what was it?”

“Nnaaa… Tired… I think…” she guessed. “I shook her awake and she barely told me anything… But knowing her… what else could it be?”

“…Huh.” Ouma leaned back and put an arm over the back of his chair. “That’s still quite a generalization, though! Just because one person is doing badly, doesn’t mean everyone is!”

“W-well…” Yumeno swallowed, “It’s not just Toujou.”

“Really?” his eyebrows raised. “Who else?”

Yumeno paused. “Nnn… Well… Chabashira is…” She bit her lip. “You know how Chabashira has always been really… really… _enthusiastic_?” she said, her voice hinting at the slightest disdain.

“Yeah? The hyper, lunatic? What about her?” he said with no hesitancy in his voice.

“Well… she’s still as hyper as ever, but…” she squint down at the floor, “Now and days… She… She just… falls asleep… in random places… for no good reason. I… I’m not sure why, but… I’m starting to think she’s… running herself dry… or… something…”

“Either that, or she’s narcoleptic.” Ouma dryly commented. His eyes flickered once as he continued with a worried tone. “But wow, what??? Really??  Chabashira-chan??? That’s so weird!!”

Her eyes widened, leaning towards him and looking at him directly. “Isn’t it???” she blurted out, the previous pressure she felt slowly starting to drift away. She slouched back in her chair, finding it easier to talk now that the cap she had placed on the topic came off.

“Something is just… wrong. Nobody’s acting like they used to, anymore… I’m starting to think everyone is going crazy… either that or they’re all becoming really, really depressed…. Maybe… Maybe even…” Yumeno stopped as she furrowed her brow. She didn’t want to even consider _that_ possibility.

Their whole situation sucked. They had put all their hopes into this happy ending that they had forged for themselves. Yumeno was sure that the happy ending they had hoped to accomplish wasn’t… this. Maybe their ideal, happy ending was all just a fantasy they conjured up. Something to make themselves feel better. To help them continue moving on despite their harsh reality.

“Gosh, Yumeno-chan! You make it sound like we’re all going to commit suicide!” Ouma forthrightly stated.

Yumeno widened her eyes at him in astonishment in his usage of such straightforward words as he continued, putting a finger to the corner of his mouth in thought.

“I mean, if things continue like this, I guess it could lead to that, huh?”

“... But…” she muttered, “that would just... be… so… so wrong.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“I-It would make all the things we worked hard for… pointless…” she said, voice wavering.

“Hmm. Sure, but what can you do, right?” he said unabashedly spreading one arm out wide. “I understand what you mean, Yumeno-chan. But I don’t feel too bad for everyone. Honestly, this kind of result is just kind of expected, at this point.”

“I-I… Wh-what?” Yumeno spluttered in confusion and disbelief.

He looked pointedly at her, droping his hand to his side. “I mean, you make it sound like this entire outcome was all forced upon us. But you can’t say that’s entirely true. The way we’re living right now... it’s all a choice, right?” Ouma stated with indifference in his voice. He gave a sardonic grin, “Nishishi! It sure is easy to blame the world for all your vague, unavoidable problems, isn’t it?”

“Nyeh?? Wh-What are you talking about??” she raised her voice. “We’re stuck here. Iruma already said it’s impossible to fly off with the ship the way it is. We _have_ to live here. There’s nothing we can do… What about this is a choice??”

“Haha! I don’t think you’d be able to understand and accept what I’m trying to say, even if I explained it! _Sooo_ I’m not going to!” he laughed. As quick as a snap, he gave out a sigh, a worried look emerging, “Either way, a suicide party sounds great and all…” he started to tear up, lip trembling, “but… if that happened… th-then I’d have n-nobody to make fun of a-anymore…”

She frowned. “If you hate it so much… why don’t you do something about it?” she scoffed.

A blink or two later, a grin suddenly came back on his face again. “You think I have the patience to help people? Yumeno-chan, are you sure you know who you’re talking to, here?” He looked off towards the door indifferently, “Either way, if everyone dies, I honestly wouldn’t care all that much. I’ve already gotten pretty used to amusing myself, after all.” He looked towards Kiibo and poked the side of his head, “I was thinking of getting myself a new punching bag, recently. All my other toys have gotten reeeeeally stale over the past eight months.”

With that, she was instantly irked. “You’re horrible…” she spat out.

“Hmm? What was that?” Ouma said, his voice cheery and obnoxiously happy.

“You’re horrible,” she repeated, her vexed voice abundantly clear to him. “I mean… you’re a leader, right? An evil leader, but… still a leader… You obviously have the brain power to fix all of this… yet…” she squint her eyes at Kiibo, “You’re not….”

He laughed. “Nishishi! Well, _sorry_ that the _evil_ supreme leader happens to not be a good person! I don’t understand why you’d expect it to be any other way!” Ouma beamed, emphasizing his words. “I have very little concern with what happens to everyone. If you want someone to do something, go get someone like… Saihara-chan or Akamatsu-chan. Even Amami-chan works! You have options!”

“Nnaa… Even they… have their problems….”

“Really? Even them?”

“… I mean, if they didn’t, don’t you think they would have done something by now?” she asked. Ouma didn’t say anything in retort. She couldn’t tell if she had made a point to him or if he just had nothing to say.

Letting out a sigh, she continued, “Like I said… everyone is doing…. Really badly. It’s awful. Somebody needs to step up and straighten things out, already…”

“Pfft!”

She raised a brow at him.

“Hahaha!” he laughed freely. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!”

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no. It’s just… Well, I couldn’t believe it when you said it! Really!” He started to laugh again. “Even just thinking about it makes me want to laugh more.”

“… What?” she hesitantly asked.

Ouma tried to stop his laughter as he spoke. “You blabber about how everyone is doing nothing. Complain about how wrong and how terrible it is for everyone to be so apathetic towards everything… After all they had worked so hard to achieve. And yet…” he paused, “What have you been doing?”

Yumeno froze.

“W-what does it look like?” she asked. “I’ve been… doing magic shows. S-so everyone can enjoy themselves…”

“And how’s that been working out for you, huh? Seems like a mighty fine success, doesn’t it?”

She didn’t say anything. Her mouth opened up in an instant, but it was shut quite as fast. She didn’t know what to say. Searching for words hastily, she quickly found none. Her fists began to tighten.

“This magic show you’ve been putting on…” he continued, “why do you do it?”

 Yumeno’s brows started to furrow. “I do this… for everyone…” she muttered. “Putting on magic shows makes me happy and it makes my audience happy…”

“Sure it can be a win-win, but that isn’t the point, here.”

“Th-then what…” she paused, “What… is the point?”

Ouma’s condescending smile began to creep up on his face again. “I know you can be oblivious, but you’re not that oblivious, right?” He gestured towards the table. “These magic shows… do you think it’s _really_ helping anyone?”

She replied in an instant. “O-of course it is! That’s what my magic shows do! They heal the hearts of broken children all the time!”

He gestured outwards towards the room. “Which is why everyone is here and clamoring for more, right?”

Yumeno’s brow furrowed, whisking her head away from him.

“ _Seeeeriously_. Reading you is so easy it’s almost sad.” He leaned back into his chair and locked his fingers together, looking at her with a neutral expression. “You know this isn’t working. You know what actually needs to be done, yet you ignore it. You blame everyone else and complain that they’re the wrong ones for not doing the things they need to do to survive while doing the same thing.” His lips quirked upwards. “It’s hilarious, really.”

The one time she somewhat hoped he would move on and just lie to her, he didn’t. She had _that_ bad of luck, she guessed. Everything he pointed out seemed utterly ludicrous of her to be thinking under inspection. It really was laughable. She was criticizing everyone lack of effort and work while also not doing anything herself.

A total hypocrite.

Yumeno gulped, an embarrassed and humiliated flush starting to creep up upon her face. Feeling something rising from her stomach into her chest, she started to feel sickened. Sickened by her words and sickened by herself. This sick feeling started to run throughout her arms and legs, causing her to start to feel weak.

She firmly placed her hands on her stomach, willing this horrid feeling to go away. Unfortunately, it seemed she had no control over it. As the seconds passed, it continued to rise up within her, her heart thumping loudly within her. Higher and further it went, festering deep inside of her, spreading all the way to her fingers, toes, and her lower jaw. It was almost as though it was going to take over her entire being.

At the peak of feeling she was going to be overwhelmed, she muttered.

“Th-then…” she paused, “I’ll do something.”

Ouma’s eyes narrowed at her. “…Excuse me?”

Trying to gather any ounce of courage she had within herself, she continued to speak. Her voice wavering, but getting louder. “I can… can… If… If nobody else is going to do something… I will.”

He sneered. “Wow, you’re actually pretty arrogant, huh?” A small smile protruded from his lips, though contrast to his voice, no scorn or mockery was to be found on his face. “But what makes you think you can do anything?” he asked, his eyes lit up with interest.

“Nnaa… I… I don’t…” she admitted, “but… somebody has to do something, right? The sad state we’re all in… This depression… We can’t keep living like this…”

“Really?” An uncaring look appeared on his face. “I think it’s fine,” he stated.

She stood up from her seat with a clatter. “No!! That’s wrong! It isn’t fine at all!”

He gave a small snicker. “Nishishi! What are you even planning on doing, anyways?”

“I’ll…” she paused in brief thought, scrunching up her fists, “…I’ll put everyone… under a spell.”

Ouma looked incredulously at her. “A… spell?”

Despite his very obviously negative facial expression, she continued to speak. “Nnnnn… yeah. A spell. A spell… that makes everyone want to help me. It’ll make people notice me more.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Yumeno-chan, are you an attention whore?”

“N-no!” She pointed her finger at him with a determined look. “It’s all a part of my master plan, you see.”

Ouma quirked his lips.  “…Master plan?”

She raised an index finger in the air and twirled it absentmindedly. “When people notice I’m trying to do something… and failing at it… they naturally come and help me.”

She pointed at him. “So the plan is easy! I’ll just try to do the things everyone should be doing already!”

“…And then?”

“And then when I fail, people will help me and start doing the things that they need to do to get better!”

Ouma narrowed his eyes at her. Yumeno felt her shoulders tense up.

“D-don’t look at me like that!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands together. “Like I said… it’s… it’s always been that way…” she trailed off, nervously pressing her thumbs into her palms.

“So,” Ouma slowly started, eyes still narrowed, “you’re going to make them pity you and then manipulate them into doing what you want them to do.”

_Uh._

“N-nyeh… Nmmm… Nnn… uh…. Th-that doesn’t matter!” she proclaimed, quickly regaining stubborn resolution in her decision.

Ouma tilt his head upwards towards the sky, putting the back of his hand on his forehead.

“’Oh nooo!! How horrible!! I just threw out my _tiny_ and _weak_ back!! How can I mow the lawn like _this_?? If _only_ somebody could _help_ me! If _only_ someone _strong_ would come by and _saaaave_ me!!”

“Hey!!” she yelled, a self-conscious flush appearing on her face yet again. “It’s a win-win for everyone!! So who cares?!”

He laughed as he dropped his hand back down. “Nishishi! Unbelievable.” He looked thoughtfully at her, an inquisitive look on his face, “Wait, but, after that, what are you going to do? Are you just planning on doing this forever? Isn’t being lazy and doing nothing, like,” he looked pointedly at her, “your thing?”

She briefly paused in thought. “Nyeh… Well… I don’t want to do this forever... I’ll probably just… stop working once they all start doing things on their own… Doing that for the rest of time…” her face winced up, “that’d be a pain…”

His face turned cheerful. “Now, _that_ sounds more like you! Even still, the likelihood of convincing anyone to actually do anything is _pretty_ low, right? If you can’t convince people to go to your magic shows, a fun activity, what makes you think you can convince them to do actual work?”

“I’ll…” she fisted her hands in front of her chest. “I’ll force them!!”

“Really? Like who??” he jeered.

“L-Like... uh…” Yumeno frantically ran down a mental list of her classmates.

Every single classmate she could come up with always seemed to have some sort of problem that would make it highly unlikely they would do anything. Yumeno didn’t know how many people Ouma knew about their current issues and situations, but she was sure he would be able to come up with a counterargument to anybody she named. Her eyes crinkled in frustration, trying to draw up a name and coming up empty.

Much to her chagrin, Ouma had begun to visibly smirk, causing her to furrow her brow again. Upon seeing her frown, Ouma’s smirk quickly became that of a wide grin. A grin that almost seemed like he was taunting her. Like he knew she wouldn’t be able to come up with anything.

Oh, if he thought she was going to give up and admit defeat, he was dead wrong. Yumeno had more stubborn pride than that. Her thumbs started to press harder into her fists, she blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“Like you!!”

There was cold, hard silence between the two. They had been talking for so long that it felt jarring for it to be this quiet. Almost foreign, in a way.

Ouma stared at her with a now, gaped mouth. He pointed at himself, giving a half-hearted laugh in disbelief. “Me?”

“Y-Yes! You!!” she asserted, his reactions to his predictions of her defeat making herself too stubborn to back down.

“Why me?” Ouma asked. Letting out a small snicker, he smiled. “Or did you just run out of options and pick the person right in front of you?”

She felt her cheeks start to run red. “I…I… Well… I picked you because…”

Yumeno questioned whether or not she was just that easy to read or whether Ouma was just observant. Either way, she didn’t want to admit to anything he said.

“Y-Your attitude… It’s…” she started to babble, trying to will her embarrassed flush to go away. “Y-your attitude ever since we got here… has not changed at all! Y-you’re not depressed in the slightest. Which means, you might be willing to stop doing nothing and actually do things!”

He gave her a cheeky smile. “Oh wow, I’m acting like a normal human being? I’m so flattered!”

“N-not normal. Normal for you… Not a normal human being.”

“E-eh?” Tears started protruding from his eyes. “Y-Yumeno-chan… are you calling me… abnormal…??” And within a second, a wave of crocodile tears sprung forth. “How cruel!!! I knew you were a manipulator, but… HOW COULD YOU BE SO HEARTLESS?? I POURED OUT MY HEART TO YOU AND EVERYTHING!!!”

Yumeno rolled her eyes, “Your crying isn’t doing anything to me, y’know…”

Ouma rubbed his eyes with his right sleeve. The moment he removed it from his face, his chipper look popped back up. “Wow, you are heartless!”

“Well, it’s a lie, so I don’t _need_ to care…”

He smiled at her, putting an ankle up on his knee, “You know me so well, don’t you?” He gazed at the underside of his nails as he continued to speak, “Anyways, I get that you had your little emotional speech and that’s supposed to make me all weak in the knees and want to help you, but that’s not gonna work for someone like me.”

“That wasn’t my intention…” she trailed off.

“Whether that was your intention or not, it doesn’t matter. It won’t work.” he indifferently said. “If you’re going to try and convince me to actually do something to help, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that.”

“N-nyeh… I-I…I… Nnnn…” Yumeno stammered, the gears in her mind whirling.

She didn’t know what she could say to convince him of anything. Was it even worth it to try?  She hardly knew a thing about Ouma. She barely even understood him. Every time she’d start to think she understood him, something would happen that would contradict that thought.

But, she guessed that alone was something defining about him. He was a blatant, walking, contradiction. But how could you convince someone like that?

“I…” she mumbled.

She was going to have to take a stab in the dark.

“I can,” she stated in stubborn resolution.

“Can? Can what?”

“…Convince you…”

“…Really?” He flicked dirt away from underneath his index finger and gave her a look. “How?”

“I’ll…” she paused suddenly starting to become hesitant, but continued anyways with the same determined tone. “I’ll threaten you.”

Ouma raised a brow at her. “Threaten me?”

“Y-yeah,” she said in resolve. “If you don’t work with me… I’ll expose your biggest secret to everyone.”

His eyes flickered away from her, to the door, and back. Giving a curious, yet incredulous look towards her, he spoke. “How interesting.” He put his hand on his chest, “My biggest secret?”

“Yeah,” she said with determination. “Your reputation would be ruined for sure.”

“ _Really_?” He leaned towards her, fingers interlocked with each another, a challenging look protruding on his face. “And what on earth would that be?”

“N-nyeh…” Yumeno stammered. “I-I’ll expose…”

“What? Expose what?” he asked snappishly.

Yumeno pointed at him.

“That you like magic shows!!”

Silence.

Cold.

Hard.

Absolute.

Silence.

Ouma burst out laughing.

This laughter wasn’t just like his normal laughter. It was a very long, drawn out set of laughs that seemed to have no intention of stopping. He cackled like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard in his life.

Yumeno stared at Ouma with a determined look, trying to give off a confident and self-assured look, even though she was really desperately praying that she was right. All the while, Ouma continued to uproariously laugh.

He continued to laugh and laugh and laugh until he looked at her directly in the eye and he immediately stopped, a perplexed look dawning upon his face. “You’re not actually serious, are you?”

“I will! …I mean, I am!” she fumbled at her words, trying to still retain the feeling of resolve she wanted to be portrayed onto him.

There was a bit of silence as the two began to stare at each other. The silence in-between them gave no clear sign of what each other was thinking. And that, in and of itself, was making Yumeno very uncomfortable. She was finding it hard to keep a straight face, not falling back into visible nervousness. It almost felt like a stand-off between the two, just waiting for the first person to crack under the pressure. But of course, knowing Ouma, that could be an impossible task.

To Yumeno’s surprise, however, Ouma’s bottom lip started to quiver. It wasn’t just his lip, as she quickly came to realize.

In fact, his whole body started to shake.

“B-but… I-I-I mean… Th-that’d… R-Ruin me!” he sputtered hastily, gripping the sides of his arms, lowering his head and staring at the floor with wide eyes, stunning Yumeno silent.

 “I-I-I mean… wh-what kind of evil s-supreme l-leader l-likes m-m-magic shows??” He snapped his head towards her, aghast, “Yumeno-chan, y-you’re horrible!! How can you th-threaten me th-this way?! I Th-thought we were friends!!”

Yumeno’s mouth went slightly agape.

She tried to retain her feelings of astonishment as she spoke, “W-well… Th-that’s how serious I am! If you don’t work with me, I’ll tell everyone,” she babbled. “S-so what do you say?? You’re gonna work with me, right??”

“Okay!” he smiled, the trembling stopping abruptly.

“… What?”

“Yup! Okay! That’s fine!”

Yumeno blinked, “Th-that was fast…”

He bounced up to his feet and gave her a smile. “Well, a truly smart leader knows when to yield when the battle is lost!”

“That doesn’t sound like you….”

“Hmm,” he hummed. “Maybe you just haven’t known me long enough to understand me!”

She could feel brows starting to furrow. “Nnaa… What’s left to understand?”

Ouma gripped his chest in very animated and over-the-top pain, “Yumeno-chan! You wound me! Thinking of me as just a flat, cardboard cut-out… How mean!”

“S-sorry…” Yumeno heedlessly apologized.

He smiled, “Well, you shouldn’t be! That was just a lie.”

“A lie?”

“Yup! All I want to do is just have fun until I die!” he said in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice. “My motivations are very simple and easy to understand.”

She glared at him, “…. Do you have to lie about everything?”

He smirked, “Do you have to be so gullible?” He stuck out his right hand towards her. “Anyways, let’s shake on it.”

Her eyes darted between his thrust out hand and his face. “Shake on it?”

“Yup! I don’t exactly want my secret to get out, right? I’ll help you for the time being _if_ you don’t tell anyone.” He raised his hand out at her more, almost as if he was trying to emphasize its presence. “So let’s shake on it.”

Gazing at his open hand, she felt a twinge of hesitance.

She knew she been stubborn and adamant about getting him to work with her. But she recognized that as more as an action of pride and refusal to be proven wrong rather than _actually_ wanting to work with him. Was this really what she wanted?

Looking back at his hand, it almost felt like she was agreeing to get involved with something nefarious. Almost as if reaching out and shaking would be like placing her hand onto a bear trap. Like she was forming a pact with the devil.

Yumeno glanced back at Ouma’s expression, which was filled with confidence and amusement. She felt her heart start to pump.

She may be slow, but she wasn’t an idiot.

She knew the benefits to working with him on this. He had already demonstrated that he was incredibly clever and quick in front of her and the rest of the class. Multiple times. In very annoying ways, but the point still stood.

Even if he wasn’t that smart in the first place, having one more person involved in trying to get everyone back on their feet could already help their situation a ton, even if they weren’t exactly that motivated to do so for the most righteous of reasons.

But along with knowing the benefits, she understood the complications that could come from this immensely well.

Looking down at his hand, she internally shook her head. Sure, Ouma was bad, but he was nowhere near the level of a devil. He was just a nightmare to deal with. But the benefit of having him working with her was too good to pass up. She knew she would probably regret it if she didn’t take this rare opportunity.

Yumeno felt her hand slowly start to rise. Slowly inching her hand over towards him…

She took his hand.

Her eyebrows slightly rose, a little bit thrown off guard. She had expected it to be a little cold or too tight. Either that or a buzzer trap lay in waiting for her in the palm of his hand. Just something generally uncomfortable.

But, no, it was just warm. It was a pretty normal hand along with a pretty normal handshake. It was weird coming from the guy, knowing his outlandish and unpredictable personality.

Yumeno raised up her head, making eye contact. He wasn’t making an outlandishly exaggerated face at her. He just looked satisfied. Satisfied and content. Weird was the only word she could describe it as. Then again, just being this close to him and holding his hand was also weird.

Ouma’s grip became a little more firm, “Okay! Our secret partnership is now official!”

“Nyeh?” Yumeno instantly responded. “Secret?”

Giving out a sigh he spoke, “Yeah… I know that people knowing I like magic shows would be a reputation ruiner for sure, but people knowing I’m hanging out with _you_? That’d probably be just as bad…”

Puffing out her cheeks, she jeered, “Sorry you think I’m so bad…”

“I mean, you’re not all that bad.” he said absentmindedly. “I can think of far worse.”

“Nyeh? Really?” she queried.

“…Yeah! Just above frog status!” he chirped.

Yumeno quickly found herself grumbling. “… Y’know, I can turn you into a frog with my magic…” she threatened.

Hastily, Ouma let go of her hand.

“Gosh, Yumeno-chan! You really are a witch!”

“Mage. But… yeah… you better be careful…” Yumeno said as she dropped her hand back down to her side. “We have a lack of princesses that could change you back…”

“Scaaary!” Ouma drawled. “Anyways, so where should we start??”

She paused in thought. She hadn’t really thought about it all that much. After all, this situation she was in was something she landed herself into on accident rather than on purpose. So she wasn’t sure what even would come next after all of this. She didn’t even know where to start.

“Eh? You can’t think of anything?? Really??” Ouma asked with a bemused look.

A couple seconds of silence passed between the two as she continued to think. She was really trying her hardest, but she couldn’t think of anything.

“This is booooring,” Ouma said as he turned his back to her and folded his plastic chair. “If you can’t think of anything, then I’m just gonna leave.”

He walked towards the folding chair cart and hung the chair back up as she mumbled softly, “Oh… okay…”

With the chair put away, Ouma turned and walked towards Kiibo. Placing and leaning his arm onto the handle, he gave her small wave. “Anyways, it’s been fun, Yumeno-chan! If you think of something, let me know!” He pointed at Kiibo, “I’ll be sure to put Kiiboy over here up to the task!”

And with that, Ouma grabbed the handle and slowly dragged the platform cart away with him.

“Wait!”

Ouma stopped in his tracks. Looking back at Yumeno, he gave her a curious look.

“H… How am I supposed to contact you…”she asked hesitantly. “When I do think of something, I mean….”

Ouma gave her a small smile. “No need to worry. You’ll be able to find me from now on. I’m sure.”

“Nna… Thanks for the straightforward answer…” she responded sarcastically.

He turned and gave a short, backhanded wave as he walked away. “Just doing what I do best!” he chirped.

And with the open and slam of the door, the gym went quiet again.

Yumeno sat down in her seat again. She rested her elbows on the table and plopped her face into her hands. She gave out a long sigh and stared out at the gym, not focusing on particularly anything.

Now that she was able to just be alone again, she could finally focus on herself. Her arms were tired from all the performing she had done earlier, and that conversation she just had with Ouma was not exactly soothing for her mental state. She swallowed, realizing that her mouth felt incredibly dry.

“Nnn... That was so long… I need water…” she mumbled to herself as she languidly pushed herself off her chair and started to pack away the rest of her stuff.

The topics they talked about together mindlessly started to play through her head as she folded up her own chair and hung it onto the cart. Yumeno felt like their interaction with each other had gone all over the place. She had always found it to be quite exhausting to talk to people, and Ouma was the worst of the bunch to talk to avoid such exhaustion.

She stared back at the door for a second or two before switching her focus to the table. She started to walk back to it as she continued to think.

Even if she was tired, she couldn’t help but feel slightly happy and a little more relaxed. She couldn’t understand why, though. Despite this, she was okay. Trying to justify it, she came to the conclusion it was just one of those things she didn’t need to understand and just accept.

She picked up the wide side of the table, trying to turn it to its side, when suddenly she felt a harsh inflammation from the underside of her arms.

She dropped the table with a loud slam. It fell to the floor, table side up, the legs, loudly, slamming shut.

She stared at the table.

Continuing to stare, she held the underside of her arms, trying to sooth the pain. After a couple of seconds of letting the inflammation subside, she muttered to herself.

“M-magic…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of Dec. 23rd, 2018, none of y'all (in the comments) guessed Kiibo. Y'all are robophobes and y'all should be ashamed.
> 
> Lol, jk.
> 
> Sorry for the long wait! I know a lot of people were waiting for this chapter. Things have been extremely busy and I haven't had time to sit down and edit;;; I hope it was worth the wait? I know the people waiting for that Ouma and Yumeno interaction will be pretty pleased. (I see you thirsty sons of bitches on Discord, lol.)
> 
> Anyways, let me know what you guys think, as usual! If you have the time, I'd greatly appreciate it. Reading comments always gives me motivation. I'm always very happy to see people commenting on my work. Especially people I'm familiar with, haha. Anyways, thanks for reading! Have a nice day! ^^

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I would give a little bit of background on how this story even got started. I started writing this as a challenge to myself. I purposefully picked aspects that I was interested in writing but I thought would be very challenging and difficult for me to pull off. The reasons I categorized them as difficult always had different reasons behind them.
> 
> To give an example, I intentionally picked a ship that I didn't like romantically at the time. Then I decided to make that the main ship. I know. What the hell, right? I must have been going crazy. I like the ship now, but I think my initial wariness towards the ship will definitely show. Maybe that'll portray a more realistic relationship? We'll see.
> 
> I don't know how well this whole thing will be taken (especially because of the ship). I'll be honest when I say I expect backlash and disapproval. Yes, I think that's the best way to describe it. Let's see how this all goes.
> 
> To quickly give a bit more info, updates will most definitely be irregular. Tags will be added as things develop. I've tried to tag the most important things to know if that is a concern to you. Feel free to give your thoughts in the comments bellow. Speculation or theories regarding past and potential future events are more than welcome and encouraged. Any and all support is greatly appreciated. Have a nice day, guys.


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